Propecia, For Curing Alcoholism?
As you know, Propecia has been on the market for over two decades and has helped millions of men overcome both hair loss and prostate problems. So, as any other prescription drug it has been associated with various side-effects that were not observed through the drug’s initial clinical tests. There’s nothing surprising about it, since it’s impossible to predict how exactly will the body respond to the drug, especially over a very long term (which Propecia is initially design for). For sure there were observed different side-effects, mostly minor, sometimes disturbing, but who would expect positive side effects that can put the drug’s use into a completely different perspective and give birth to a new type of medications? Here it goes for the strange side effect of Propecia that can be characterized as a reduced desire to consume alcohol.
Unforeseen side-effects
Taking into consideration that Propecia affects the hormonal balance in its users it was easy to expect some unforeseen effects when tweaking this highly sensitive aspect of our health. Luckily, there are no major side effects associated with the use of Propecia, although some of them are certainly rather discomforting. To these effects belongs the reduced sexual drive usually observed in older Propecia users. But what’s most interesting about this side effect is that the majority of patients who have reported it have also reported a much weaker desire to consume alcoholic beverages of all types. It’s really so, Propecia has the potential to reduce the desire to consume alcohol. Does it make it a new anti-alcoholism medication?
Propecia will be used for curing alcoholism?
Unfortunately, at the moment it would be false to say “yes”. It’s really true, Propecia has the potential to affect the craving for taking a drink, but only in a certain group of patients, most of which can be characterized as social drinkers, not chronic alcoholics. These days it’s just too early to expect that Propecia will be approved for treating alcoholism anytime soon. Anyways, this new observation leads to a completely new array of perspectives that will most likely give birth to a new type of drugs that will be able to address the problem. But the fact itself is great: such side effects confirm the long-discussed possibility for treating alcoholism through the use of medications in contrast to the methods employed today.
New horizons
This new information serves as a hard proof for the brain-chemistry nature of alcoholism – something that was theorized for a very long time but didn’t have much hard evidence. It turns out that the use of Propecia alters the neurotransmitter balance in some of the patients and affects the mechanisms responsible for seeking relaxation and pleasure in alcohol and other drugs. Still it’s an unexplored terrain yet that the researchers and scientists are only stepping in, with years of research and experiments before any effective and safe drug can be developed. All in all, it’s rather interesting to realize that these new perspectives owe a lot to Propecia and some of its discomforting side effects, which no one would have expected to serve a good purpose.