A clinical remission study of low-severity alcohol use disorder, treated with nalmefene

Abstract

Background:When someone develops an alcohol use disorder (AUD), their addiction conditioning does not go away simply by refraining from drinking for some weeks or months. On the contrary, due to the deprivation effect, if one day they try to have just one alcoholic drink they will feel a strong and imperative biological necessity to keep drinking very fast, not being able to stop, which will lead to immediate negative consequences.The good news is that opiod receptor antagonists, such as naltrexone and nalmefene, have shown efficacy for reducing the deprivation effect, and for reducing alcohol consumption, in people who suffer from low-severity alcohol use disorders.