Reward alcohol effects

Chester JA, Cunningham CL GABA(A) receptor modulation of the rewarding and aversive effects of ethanol. Alcohol 26 131—143, 2002 Chick J Safety issues concerning the use of disulfiram in treating alcohol dependence. Drug Saf 20 427 35, 1999... 

One of the most fruitful approaches to the elucidation of reaction mechanisms in organic chemistry is the study of the effect of structure on the reactivity and the course of the reaction. This approach is used extensively in homogeneous reactions and found to be equally rewarding in the study of the mechanism of dehydration of alcohols over alumina catalysts. Much information was obtained by changing the configuration of the alcohols. 

Naltrexone (ReVia). Naltrexone is a very potent antagonist of the actions of opiates. It has been used to reduce the rewarding effects of not only opiates but alcohol as well. Like buprenorphine, naltrexone appears to reduce craving for opiates by blocking their pleasurable effects. Naltrexone is not useful for detoxification and in fact worsens withdrawal. Naltrexone can be useful for maintenance treatment in those patients motivated to achieve total abstinence. It is taken at a constant dose of 50mg/day. A sustained-release depot formulation currently under development will likely help to overcome adherence issues that often undermine treatment for substance use disorders. 

Psychological dependence on alcohol is characterized by a compulsive desire to experience the rewarding effects of alcohol and, for current drinkers, a desire to avoid the negative consequences of withdrawal. People who have recovered from alcoholism and become abstinent still experience periods of intense craving for alcohol that can be set off by environmental cues associated in the past with drinking, such as familiar places, groups of people, or events. 

The notion that addicts choose present rewards over future gains or penalties echoes throughout the chapters in Addiction. The effect of cultural values and beliefs on addicts, and on those who treat them, is also explored, particularly in chapters by Jon Elster on alcoholism and by Caroline Jean Acker on American heroin addicts in the 1920s and 1930s. 

Allylic alcohols with a cis-3-substituent (45) are the slowest to be epoxidized, and they give the most variable enantiofacial selectivity. Both these characteristics suggest that allylic alcohols of this structure have the poorest fit to the requirements of the active epoxidation catalyst. Nevertheless, asymmetric epoxidation of these substrates is still effective and in most cases gives an enantiomeric purity of at least 80% ee and often as high as 95% ee. Patience with the slower reaction rate usually is rewarded with chemical yields of epoxy alcohols comparable with those obtained with other allylic alcohols. A number of representative examples are collected in Table 6A.5 [2,4,38,59,62a,71-78],... 

Neurotransmission events involved in the sensation of reward are also important. Alcohol affects local concentrations of serotonin, opioids, and dopamine—neurotransmitters involved in brain reward circuits. Alcohol also has complex effects on the expression of receptors for these neurotransmitters and their signaling pathways. The discovery that naltrexone, a nonselective opioid receptor antagonist, helps patients who are recovering from alcoholism abstain from drinking supports the idea that the neurochemical reward system is shared by drugs associated with physical and psychological dependence. 

Rimonabant may also alter reward pathways that promote addictive behaviors such as overeating. This drug has been shown to attenuate the rewarding effects of alcohol in a strain of alcohol-preferring rat s (161) and may similarly diminish the pleasurable effects of food and overeating that can often play important roles in the etiology of obesity. 

Tissue Cultures, Microbial Transformations.—Little success has rewarded the search for cell cultures that effectively biosynthesize monoterpenes de novo. The most impressive studies utilize cultures from a variety of Mentha spp. yields of oil were some 60 % (w/v) of those in the parent plants, but the monoterpene products were generally more oxidized (i.e. ketones extra C=C bonds predominated). In vitro, oxidation at C-3 of the menthane skeleton was also restricted, apparently owing to an inhibition of the enzymic reduction of the 4(8) double bond in the intermediates formed.925 926 Colchicine stimulated synthesis of essential oil by Mentha cultures.927 Iridoid glucosides have been produced by cultured cells of Gardenia spp.673 Menthone was biotransformed to neomenthol by Mentha suspension cultures,928 and Nicotiana lines oxidized linalool and its derivatives at C-10 to aldehydes and alcohols,929 and also foreign substrates such as a-terpineol (at C-6 and C-7) and /raw.s-/ -menthan-9-en-l-ol (at C-4 and C-10).930... 

Topiramate is an antiepileptic drug that attenuates the rewarding effect of alcohol associated with abuse by inhibiting mesocorticolimbic dopamine release via facilitation of GABA activity and inhibition of glutamate function. It has been demonstrated to reduce both alcohol consumption and craving. 

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