Monday, 8 December 2014

Can a pill cure binge drinking and dementia?

"'Wonder' drug could cure binge drinking, Alzheimer's and dementia," the Mail Online reports. But before you raise a glass or two, these are premature claims based on research in rats that has not yet been proven, or even tested, in people.

Researchers gave rats alcohol to mimic the habits of human binge drinking. After three weeks of binging, the rats had signs of damage to their brain and performed worse at tasks that involved running through mazes.

When the scientists gave some of the mice a compound called ethane-β-sultam, it significantly reduced the alcohol-associated brain damage and inflammation, and resulted in improved performance in the maze tests.