Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 17, 1995                   TAG: 9501170152
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NEW DRUG OK'D FOR ALCOHOLICS

Unlike Antabuse, the currently used drug which causes severe nausea when alcohol is taken, naltrexone works by blocking both the craving for alcohol and the pleasure of getting high.

``This is the beginning of a new era ... in alcoholism treatment,'' said Dr. Enoch Gordis, director of the institute, which funded testing of the drug. ``This is not a `magic bullet,' but naltrexone promises to help many patients in their struggle against a chronic relapsing disease.''

Results from an ongoing clinical trial to be released today at a New York news conference show that, when combined with conventional behavioral modification, naltrexone allows as many as three-quarters of alcoholics to avoid a relapse, compared with fewer than half of those who received counseling alone.

``[We] now have a novel medical approach available that significantly increases abstinence rates and seems to reduce alcohol craving,'' said Dr. Joseph Volpicelli of the University of Pennsylvania.

Nearly 11 million Americans suffer from alcoholism, and as many as a third of all Americans are touched by it through a close relative or acquaintance. At least 100,000 deaths are associated with alcohol abuse each year, either from cirrhosis of the liver or from accidents caused by intoxication.

About 1 million American alcoholics seek help for their problem each year, but many drop out of treatment quickly, in part because their craving for alcohol is so great that they are unable to resist the temptation. Of those who stay in the programs, more than half typically suffer a relapse within a few months.

Naltrexone was developed by the DuPont Co., now the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co., for the treatment of heroin abuse and approved for that use in 1984. It targets the same receptors in the brain that produce feelings of pleasure when heroin or other opiates bind to them, but does not itself produce a ``high'' and is not habit-forming.

Although alcohol does not bind to those brain receptors, studies in animals and show that naltrexone works equally well against it.

Patients reported it reduced the craving for a drink. And because it reduced pleasurable sensations from alcohol, patients who had a drink during recovery were less likely to suffer a relapse.