Caffeine in coffee can help with alcohol addiction

Coffee may help counteract some of the effects of alcohol on the brain and limit the risk of addiction.

Alcohol changes the way people drink. Previous research has shown that caffeine can interfere with the effects of alcohol . A new study takes a closer look at this connection.

In experiments on mice, a team of researchers from Italy and the US found that caffeine has a strong effect on the dopamine pathway (midbrain-limbic pathway), an important part of the system that creates feelings of pleasure when the brain releases the hormone dopamine.

 Caffeine blocks the conversion of alcohol to salsolinol.

This pathway is involved in several brain mechanisms that help alcoholics recover.

Researchers found that caffeine blocks the conversion of alcohol to salsolinol , a chemical that triggers the release of dopamine. That makes drinking less enjoyable and reduces the desire to continue drinking.

Caffeine also blocks dopamine , not just the effects of alcohol. It also directly interferes with how the brain identifies and responds to salsolinol and morphine. Morphine is also addictive, which researchers say makes caffeine a promising option for preventing addiction in general .

Among the drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat alcoholism is the μ-receptor antagonist naltrexone, which blocks the effects of alcohol by interfering with dopamine transmission, said neuroscientist Riccardo Maccioni, one of the study's authors.

Caffeine also acts similarly to that drug, activating the μ receptor brain switch. This raises the potential for using caffeine in the treatment of addiction, although the research path to a finished drug still has many steps to go.

The team will now test it on other animals to verify the results and monitor how these effects change over longer periods of time.

Professor Maccioni said he was excited to see the effects of caffeine on subjects who were already dependent on alcohol and wanted to determine whether the research could provide directions for potential treatments for alcohol use disorders.