Recent developments in alcoholism:pharmacological treatment.

Neurobiological research over the past decade has greatly expanded our knowledge of alcohol's interaction with the nervous system and promises significant improvement in pharmacological treatment for all phases of alcoholism. Although no new treatment has yet become standard clinical practice, over the next decade benzodiazepine receptor antagonists and inverse agonists should improve treatment of acute alcohol intoxication, adrenergic agents and anticonvulsants should improve treatment of acute alcohol withdrawal, and serotonin uptake blockers and mu opiate receptor antagonists should improve long-term treatment of alcohol dependence. Future clinical research should reduce the current lack of knowledge on pharmacological treatment of alcoholism in special populations such as women, the elderly, and those with concurrent psychiatric diagnoses.