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Thursday, April 26, 2007

Opioid Receptor Gene (OPRM1, OPRK1, and OPRD1) Variants and Response to Naltrexone Treatment for Alcohol Dependence: Results From the VA Cooperative Study

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 31 (4), 555–563.


Pharmacotherapy of alcohol dependence (AD) is at an early stage of development; currently available medications have limited efficacy. It would be clinically valuable to identify, before initiation of a course of treatment, those patients who, based on genetic markers, are most likely to respond to a specific pharmacotherapy.

A previous report suggested that a functional variant at the genetic locus encoding the μ opioid receptor (Asn40Asp) is such a marker, in short-term (3-month) treatment with the opioid-blocking drug naltrexone (NTX).

Although NTX had no significant effect on relapse to heavy drinking in the overall sample in CSP 425, it significantly reduced relapse in the subgroup that provided DNA for analysis (i.e., the present study sample). There were no significant interactions between any individual single nucleotide polymorphisms studied and NTX treatment response.

These results do not support association of the OPRM1 Asn40Asp polymorphism with NTX treatment response for AD.

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