New Alcoholism Treatment To Eliminate Dependency, Could Be Cure?

Scientists may have found an off switch for alcoholism. Targeting only specific neural pathways that are specialized just for alcohol consumption, researchers at the Scripps Research Institute were able completely eliminate compulsive alcohol consumption in mice populations, according to research published Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience. "It's like they forgot they were dependent," Olivier George, an assistant professor at Scripps and lead researcher on the study, said of the findings. "We can completely reverse alcohol dependence by targeting a network of neurons." When a person or mouse drinks alcohol, they develop neural reward pathways specifically for alcohol.