New research suggests that the drug ondansetron could help alcoholics significantly curb their drinking. According to researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center, ondansetron worked in patients with early-onset alcoholism. About a fourth of the 16 million alcoholics in the U.S. have early-onset alcoholism, developing problem drinking at or before age 25.

Dr. Bankole Johnson, a psychiatrist who led the study, said an imbalance between two chemical messengers in the brain, serotonin and dopamine, may cause early-onset alcoholism. People in this category generally respond poorly to counseling, exhibit anti-social behavior, and have a high relapse rate.

In the study, 271 alcoholics were either treated with ondansetron in doses of 1, 4 or 16 micrograms per kilogram twice daily, or received a placebo pill, for 11 weeks. Researchers found that alcoholics on the 4 micrograms dose had an average of about 1.5 drinks daily compared to nearly 3.5 drinks daily for the placebo group. The former also abstained from drinking for an average of about 70 percent of the study days, compared with 50 percent for the placebo group.

The report is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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