Alcoholism Recovery Linked to Genetics

New research from Mayo Clinic, Minesota, suggests the presence of a certain genetic marker can determine how well individuals will benefit from treatment for alcoholism. The variant appears to identify individuals for whom treatment with the drug acamprosate, commonly used to aid recovery from alcohol-dependence, will be effective. In an article published in the journal Translation Psychiatry, studies demonstrated that people carrying these variants experience longer periods of abstinence from alcohol during the first three months of treatment.

The research focused on studying the association between variation in a set of candidate genes and the length of abstinence in alcohol-dependent patients being treated with acamprosate. When external environmental and physiological factors were considered, patients possessing the marker were shown to exhibit an extended period of sobriety compared to those with a variant allele of the same gene. Collaborators in Germany were able to replicate these results in a separate sample of alcohol-dependent patients.

Mayo Clinic psychiatrist and lead author of the article, Victor Karpyak believes the finding could pave the way towards development of a pharmacogenetic test that would permit patient-specific treatment: “We believe that individualised treatment selection will eliminate the need for trial-and-error approaches and improve treatment efficacy in patients with alcohol use disorders.”

The variant in question is located in the GRIN2B gene, a component of the N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. The findings therefore support evidence that implicates an important role of the NMDA receptors in the treatment effects of acomprosate. More research is needed to determine the importance of the identified markers in the long-term effects of acamprosate, as well as the mechanisms behind the effects of the treatment.