Wednesday, July 11, 2007
2 birds, one pill, Chantix

Ooooh, this sounds promising!

Living with an alcoholic is like having a tornado rips through your home. No one on the outside notices a thing, but inside everything is in an upheaval.

A new study shows the quit-smoking drug Chantix may help treat alcoholism. The study appears in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The FDA approved Chantix in May of 2006. "Chantix acts at sites in the brain affected by nicotine and may help those who wish to give up smoking in two ways: by providing some nicotine effects to ease the withdrawal symptoms and by blocking the effects of nicotine from cigarettes if they resume smoking."

Pfizer Inc. developed varenicline specifically as a stop-smoking aid and has sold it in the United States since August under the brand name Chantix. The new study suggests not just nicotine but alcohol also acts on the same locations in the brain. But several experts also stress there is no such thing as a magic cure-all for addiction.

Labels: ,

9:35 AM
0 comment(s)! :: share it