7 - Role of Human Laboratory Studies in the Development of Medications for Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders

Abstract

The current chapter illustrates the extent to which human laboratory studies may be useful in the development of medications for alcohol and substance use disorders. The medications for the treatment of alcohol dependence (disulfiram, oral and intramuscular naltrexone, and acamprosate) were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration without such studies, but increasingly, human laboratory studies are improving our understanding of the mechanisms and selectivity of their effects. In contrast, many putative treatments for cocaine dependence, and to a lesser extent methamphetamine dependence, have been screened by human laboratory studies—although no effective treatments have yet been developed. Conclusions suggest that methods to screen the safety and possible efficacy of putative treatments in the human laboratory are validated, but that the efficacy of outpatient treatment also involves compliance and other factors that have not been adequately modeled in human laboratory studies.