Experimental Treatment of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS) and Clinical Application

Krupisky, E.M., Katznelson, Ya.S., Lebedev, V.P., Flood, N.V., Patterson, M.A., Lipton, J.M. and Kozlowski, G.P. Transcranial electrostimulation (TES) of brain opioid structures (BOS): experimental treatment of alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) and clinical application. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, New Orleans, November 10-15, 1991.

Alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) was induced in rats. Noninvasive CES increased the -endorphin level in rat cerebrospinal fluid from 15.93  2.17 to 53.25  6.1 pmol/ml and met-enkephalin from 3.61  1.39 to 7.86  0.94 pmol/ml. Marked therapeutic effect of CES was also demonstrated in this animal model. Clinical double-blind placebo-controlled studies showed that CES was an effective method in the treatment of AWS in patients. After the CES treatment in AWS patients, the -endorphin concentration in plasma rose from 5.86  0.72 to 10.66  0.65 pmol/L. There was a threefold increase in -endorphin concentration after just 1 CES treatment.