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Gambling Treatment Drug Shows Promise

UNITED STATES – As reported by the LA Times: "For the estimated 6 million compulsive gamblers in the U.S., the long odds are on a pill.

"In the largest clinical study of its kind, researchers at the University of Minnesota found that daily doses of an experimental drug called nalmefene, often used to treat alcoholism, appeared to curb the craving to gamble.

"The research represents the latest effort to control the biology of misbehavior at a time when celebrity poker, online gambling, lotteries and sports betting have helped to make obsessive wagering a national psychiatric disorder.

"…The study was sponsored by BioTie Therapies Corp., a Finnish biotechnology company that manufactures nalmefene.

"The researchers tested the drug in a controlled trial involving 207 people undergoing treatment for compulsive gambling at 15 centers across the United States.

"Almost two-thirds of the patients who were given nalmefene showed 'significant' improvement during the four months of treatment, while about one-third of the patients in the placebo group responded favorably, the researchers reported…"

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