Role of the Human Laboratory in the Development of Medications for Alcohol and Drug Dependence

Abstract

The current review illustrates the extent to which human laboratory methods of abuse liability assessment have been useful in the development of medications for alcohol and drug dependence. The three medications for the treatment of alcohol dependence (disulfiram, naltrexone, and acamprosate) were approved by the Food and Drug Administration without such studies, but increasingly, human laboratory studies are improving our understanding of the mechanism 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—though 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 factors which have not been adequately modeled in human laboratory studies.