The successful treatment of most diseases relies heavily upon early detection. Biomarkers with diagnostic and prognostic value are critical to the addiction field. Most individuals with alcohol or drug dependence or use problems evade detection until severe medical, legal, or social consequences arise. The short half-life of alcohol in the blood after cessation of drinking eliminates the feasibility for using blood alcohol as a biomarker. Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) is currently the most specific serum marker of chronic, heavy alcohol use (Reynaud et al, 2000), but the low sensitivity of the CDT test in the general population makes it an unreliable candidate for predicting either heavy alcohol use or for diagnosing alcohol abuse and/or dependence (Alte et al, 2004). Except for the drugs and their metabolites, there are not biomarkers for addiction.
Discovery of reliable blood-based molecular markers of alcohol dependence and use would mark a milestone for addiction research and offer a great benefit for predicting the disease even without knowing the role of the markers in the disease process. Once biomarkers are discovered, the opportunity for early detection and intervention as well as personalized therapeutics should lead to new treatments for the disease.
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