An improved model of ethanol and nicotine co-use in female P rats: Effects of naltrexone, varenicline, and the selective nicotinic α6β2* antagonist r-bPiDI

Approximately 14% of the U.S. population meets criteria for alcohol use disorder (AUD) (Grant et al., 2015), and approximately 70% of these individuals meet criteria for tobacco use disorder (TUD) (Falk et al., 2006), making this combination (AUD-TUD polysubstance abuse) highly prevalent in the United States and worldwide (for review see Van Skike et al., 2016). Although pharmacotherapies are available for AUD or TUD individually, it may be possible to develop a single pharmacotherapeutic agent to treat heavy drinking tobacco smokers through targeting common mechanisms mediating AUDs and TUDs (Roche et al., 2016).

Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence - October 17, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Sarah E. Maggio, Meredith A. Saunders, Kimberly Nixon, Mark A. Prendergast, Guangrong Zheng, Peter A. Crooks, Linda P. Dwoskin, Richard L. Bell, Michael T. Bardo Source Type: research