Anti-gambling drug showing promise

MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- A Finnish drug used to combat alcoholism is showing promise in helping people being treated for compulsive gambling, University of Minnesota researchers say.

The researchers tested nalmefene in a controlled trial involving 207 people undergoing treatment for compulsive gambling at 15 centers across the United States, and almost two-thirds of the patients who were given it showed "significant" improvement during the four months of treatment.

"The study is part of emerging evidence that gambling, once thought to be a problem in moral integrity, is instead a problem in brain biology and can be successfully treated," said Dr. Robert Freedman, editor of the American Journal of Psychiatry, which published the study Wednesday in its February issue.

In the testing, about one-third of the patients in the placebo group responded favorably, and about one-third of those taking the drug dropped out due to nausea and other side effects, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The new compound "offers a real promise of hope for folks with this problem," said Dr. Jon Grant, a University of Minnesota psychiatrist who led the study.