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Expert: Drug Could Help Problem Gamblers29 April 2002AUSTRALIA – As reported by the New Zealand One News:A drug used to rehabilitate heroin addicts and alcoholics was showing early promise as a treatment for problem gamblers, a conference was told on Monday. "Psychiatrist Malcolm Battersby, a senior lecturer at South Australia's Flinders University, said a handful of case studies had shown naltrexone seemed to reduce the overwhelming urge to gamble found in pathological punters. "In heroin addicts, naltrexone, an opioid antagonist, works by blocking the opioid receptors in the brain, but Battersby said researchers were unclear how it helped gambling addicts. "…`We've used it with one person in South Australia who had this very strong urge and didn't respond to the other sorts of treatment and he's actually responded well to the naltrexone,' Dr Battersby said…" |