About Alcoholism - Alcoholism Information, Research and Treatment

For a long time now, scientists have been searching for a sober-upper--a drug to help speed the liver along in its job of breaking down alcohol. As luck would have it, researchers at Rutgers' Center of Alcohol Studies in New Brunswick, N.J., have just uncorked a drug which does precisely the opposite--it extends the intoxicating effects of booze for a few hours by slowing down alcohol breakdown. At least it does in rats, say Drs. Gordon Benson and David Lester. But there's good reason to think the drug, pyrazole, will work in man, too. Their test-tube studies showed that the agent is able to retard the action of the human liver enzyme that is responsible for demolishing the alcohol molecule.