When the alcoholic rodent subjects – which were actually made dependent on ethanol through exposure in their food or in aerosol form – were given gabapentin, their alcohol intake decreased. By contrast, alcohol consumption by control group rats, who hadn’t been made alcohol-dependent, was unaffected.

Although gabapentin – known by the brand name Neurontin – had already been used as an effective treatment for withdrawal symptoms and cravings in detoxifying alcohol-dependent patients, the significance of the new research is that it uncovered cellular-level processes in the brain involved in alcohol addiction.

Long-term alcohol abuse modifies chemical communication between neurons in the central amygdala, a region of the brain with a significant role in controlling alcohol consumption. “Gabapentin corrected the cellular effects of chronic alcohol exposure,” according to a release issued by the Society for Neuroscience.

Said Dr. Robert Messing of the University of California, San Francisco – who was not connected to the research – “this paper provides a strong rationale for large clinical trials testing whether gabapentin is an effective treatment for alcoholism in both detoxified and actively drinking alcoholics.”