研究:氯胺酮可以帮助酗酒者减少饮酒

Ketamine was once known as the club drug of choice for wild ravers — but it could soon become synonymous with sobriety.

氯胺酮曾被认为是俱乐部里狂野狂欢者的首选药物，但它可能很快就会成为清醒的同义词。

A new study has found that the drug — also known as Special K — can help heavy drinkers cut back dramatically on alcohol.

一项新的研究发现，这种也被称为Special K的药物可以帮助酗酒者大幅减少酒精摄入量。

Just a single dose, when combined with some mental exercises, lowers booze use by “rewriting” the memories of drinking that make alcoholics drink too much, said the study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

周二发表在《自然通讯》(Nature Communications)杂志上的这项研究称，只需一剂，再加上一些脑力锻炼，就能“改写”饮酒的记忆，从而降低饮酒量，使酗酒者饮酒过量。

A group of British researchers looked at 90 beer lovers “with hazardous/harmful drinking patterns” who were known to down roughly 30 pints a week.

一组英国研究人员调查了90名“有危险/有害饮酒模式”的啤酒爱好者，这些人每周大约喝下30品脱啤酒。

Participants were first given a glass of beer and told they could drink it after looking at and rating a series of images of other beverages, such as orange juice, beer, wine and soft drinks.

研究人员先让参与者喝一杯啤酒，然后让他们看一系列其他饮料的图片并对其进行评级，比如橙汁、啤酒、葡萄酒和软饮料。

The researchers then gave some of the people a small dose of ketamine, which is known to have an effect on people’s memories.

然后，研究人员给一些人服用小剂量的氯胺酮，这是已知的对人的记忆有影响的药物。

By day 10 of the study, the people who were given ketamine combined with memory therapy saw reductions in their urge to drink and drank less alcohol.

在研究的第10天，服用氯胺酮和记忆疗法的人发现他们想喝酒的欲望减弱了，也少喝了酒。

Those given the ketamine halved their weekly alcohol consumption over nine months, the study said. Researchers said this could completely change the way alcohol treatment is conducted.

研究称，那些服用氯胺酮的人在九个月的时间里每周饮酒量减少了一半。研究人员表示，这可能会彻底改变酒精治疗的方式。

“We found that heavy drinkers experienced a long-term improvement after a very quick and simple experimental treatment,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Ravi Das.

研究报告的主要撰写人拉维·达斯博士说:“我们发现，经过快速而简单的实验治疗，重度饮酒者的症状有了长期的改善。”

“Learning is at the heart of why people become addicted to drugs or alcohol. Essentially, the drug hijacks the brain’s in-built reward-learning system, so that you end up associating environmental ‘triggers’ with the drug. These produce an exaggerated desire to take the drug,” said Das.

“学习是人们为什么会对毒品和酒精上瘾的核心。从本质上讲，这种药物劫持了大脑内建的奖励学习系统，因此你最终会将环境“触发因素”与药物联系起来。这就产生了一种夸大的吸毒欲望。”达斯说。

The study’s senior author, Sunjeev Kamboj, a professor at University College London, called ketamine “a safe, common drug that is being explored for multiple psychiatric uses, including depression.”

该研究的主要作者，伦敦大学学院的教授Sunjeev Kamboj称氯胺酮是“一种安全、常见的药物，正在被探索用于多种精神病学用途，包括抑郁症。”