Global campaign planned to target alcohol abuse

] The pill’s name is varenicline and it is already on the market in the U.S. and Canada as a remedy for smoking under the brand name Chantix. Its European name is Champix. No research on the drug as a treatment for alcoholism has been done yet on humans. But one study on rats shows varenicline cuts desire for alcohol by 50 percent. The rats do not exhibit excessive drinking even after they are no longer given the drug. That reduced desire for alcohol could be a key element in any future testing on humans. Often alcoholics tend to go back to drinking after they quit taking any of the current drugs on the market. The study’s author is Dr. Selena Bartlett of the University of California San Francisco. She says medication options are few for treating alcoholism. “There are very few effective medicines to treat alcoholism. Our hope is that this drug will provide a new and improved method for treating alcoholism." Varenicline has been available for about a year as a treatment to curb nicotine addiction. Dr. Bartlett thinks it will help drinkers too. ”There is a huge link in smoking and drinking." Eighty-five percent of alcoholics are also believed to smoke, and researchers are hoping patients would then be able to take one drug for both conditions. More [url:
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] But a new study by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center suggests that women are more prone to brain damage from alcohol abuse than men. The study led by Kristine Wiren, Ph.D., associate professor of behavioral neuroscience and medicine, OHSU School of Medicine, and research biologist, PVAMC Research Service, found that female mice are more susceptible to neurotoxic effects of alcohol withdrawal, including significantly increased brain cell death, than male mice. It also found the gender difference exists whether the animals are prone to severe withdrawal due to a genetic predisposition, or resistant to it. Wiren said she was surprised by the results. “We designed the experiment to be able to identify gene expression differences between lines of mice that are genetically selected for severe alcohol withdrawal compared with mice that are resistant to alcohol withdrawal," Wiren said. “I thought there would be a difference between the genders, but I didn’t think it would be the most important thing." She added, “The withdrawal severity phenotypes do show some differences, but they’re subtle." Wiren and Joel Hashimoto, research associate of behavioral neuroscience at OHSU and the PVAMC Research Service, examined four groups of selectively bred mice: two female groups, including one prone to severe withdrawal and one resistant to severe withdrawal, and two similar male groups. Four control groups also were used. [url=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070722232203.htm:
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] The crackdown is part of a strategy endorsed Thursday by the World Health Organization’s 193 members, breaking decades of global inaction on one of the leading causes of death. It also puts national governments on a collision course with an industry wary of new taxes and advertising controls. Brewers and liquor manufacturers have trumpeted their brands online, and their sites on Facebook are booming. Heineken counts 400,000 people who “like” its beer, while vodka maker Absolut and alcopop brand Smirnoff Ice are nearing a half-million each. But the Global Alcohol Producers Group — representing Heineken, Diageo, Anheuser-Busch InBev and others — called WHO’s strategy an “important and constructive step forward in helping address alcohol issues around the world." Spokeswoman Carol Clark said the group wanted to work with WHO to reduce alcohol abuse, and voiced support for minimum age requirements, drunk driving laws and other optional measures suggested in WHO’s report. In the 24-page report, WHO warned that alcohol was being “marketed through increasingly sophisticated advertising and promotion techniques." Sports, concerts and sponsorships are being joined by e-mails, texts, podcasting and social media to reach consumers, some of them underage. Online sites have been used by European youths organizing massive binge drinking festivals that are being increasingly scrutinized by authorities. Last week, a 21-year-old man died in France after an accident at an alcohol-drenched party organized on Facebook attended by 10,000 young revelers. More [url:
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