Alcoholism is one of the issues that most affects our society today. Many people have lost everything and end their lives living in the streets due to this addiction.
Nevertheless, nowadays the solution for this problem could go beyond psychological therapy. Do you know where is it? Here in Chile! A team of scientists from “Universidad de Chile” are working to produce an anti alcoholism vaccine. The vaccine injects a gene, already present in the 20% of the Asian population, which blocks the action of an enzyme, "dehyde dehydrogenase", this enzyme metabolizes the alcohol in our system. Without it, the unease provoked by the consumption of alcohol, such as dizziness, tachycardia or vasodilatation, is exacerbated. Therefore, patients react so violently to alcohol that it inhibits their addiction Most current therapies against alcoholism block this enzyme, but as they are patches or pills they depend on the patient’s will to take the medication. The vaccine affects the liver cells directly, and one shot a month would be sufficient to help alleviate the addiction.
When testing alcoholic rats, they diminished their consumption of alcohol by 50%. They hope to reduce the consumption of alcohol in humans by a 90% to 95%. The process is slow because they need to pass many stages to get the final product, but if everything goes as planned the vaccine will be available in 2014. But is it good to depend on a vaccine? Might more people start drinking alcohol recklessly because they know that a vaccine exists that could cure their addiction?
Here you can find some international news regarding this discovery
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2011/01/07/vaccine-alcoholism-works-chile/http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1344971/Vaccine-alcoholism-works-making-feel-sick-drink.html
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159226.html
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/chilean-researchers-to-test-vaccine-against-alcholism/story-e6frg8y6-1225983868771
I think the vaccine will be really helpful for therapies. Most of the cases of alcohol dependence can't be treated properly because of a genetic factor. This would be the answer for so many people who have troubles facing life through alcohol.
ReplyDeleteAs everything in science, the properly usage that we have with the information we got is essential to have a positive social response.
Maybe, if we just apply this vaccine in certain contexts human morality won't be affect at all.
This is quite interesting. I believe that a lot of people would start drinking if they know that such vaccine becomes available. It's like the panacea they have been waiting for.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that this treatment is going to cure a hundred percent the addiction; in fact, I would say that it's a backward step. One of the main factors of every psychological therapy is to make the patient aid himself using his own resources because, by doing that, his or her efforts will be significant, and so it will be the recovery.
Injecting a medicine that cures an addiction in the blink of an eye would prevent people from undergoing such meaningful process.
I think that the vaccine itself it would be really helpful,because it has a gene-blocking mechanism therapy, and it works for the long term. They claim that this vaccine would have a duration between six months and a year, so the medication doesn’t have to strongly rely on the patient's will or responsibility. As opposed to pills, that affect all the cells of our body and have many side effects, the vaccines affect directly the liver cells. Nevertheless, as Joaquin said most people have to go through some psychological process, to get better, and think better, and not drink, so this would go hand in hand with psychological therapy and family support.As Laura said, it is really important that we use this treatment properly and that we have use information that we are given, because often people aren’t properly informed, or they just misuse a medication, sometimes harming themselves. Therefore it is everyone’s job to contribute to make sure that this kind of treatment really works on people who have an addiction
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