Imagine feeling the positive sensations of a couple of cocktails—you know, increased joviality, decreased inhibitions and so on—without the consequential hangover the next day. Scientists are currently developing a cocktail of drugs that will elicit the pleasurable effects of drinking without the slurred speech and spinning head that usually accompany imbibing. Drugs are a poor substitution for a full-bodied glass of cabernet or a cold beer, but the idea is still intriguing the scientific community. Psychopharmacologist David Nutt of the University of Bristol [1] will publish the idea in next month's Journal of Psychopharmacology. [2]

It would work like this: alcohol does what it does by attaching onto the brain's GABA-A receptors [3] (or signaling molecules) - the control devices for much of the brain's functioning. Scientists are developing molecules that will stick to the good receptors like relaxation and sociability and stay away from the bad receptors like memory loss and impaired speech. "The trick pharmacologists need to pull off is to make a mixture of molecules that deliver alcohol's pleasurable effects, notably relaxation and sociability, without the aggression, nausea, loss of coordination and amnesia that can cause drinkers and those around them so much grief," writes Graham Lawton in this month's New Scientist. [4]

I'm trying to picture my Irish in-laws calmly popping a few pills at their next family reunion instead of toasting with Guinness [5] and Jameson, [6] but it doesn't look like that'll be happening any time soon. Finding funding and support for a new lifestyle drug will be challenging and luring drinkers away from their favorite bars even more so.

[via New Scientist [7]]

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