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A cure for alcoholism has been invented.
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
Scientists from Chile (Santiago) are seriously engaged in developing a new vaccine against alcoholism. Doctors are concerned that every year the number of people who drink alcoholic beverages daily is growing. The drug, which is currently being developed by doctors from Santiago, is designed to imitate a hangover syndrome after a minimal amount of alcohol taken internally. The idea of creating a drug aimed at combating alcoholism arose after data on the study of the reaction to alcohol in residents of the Far East were announced.
It has become known that a fairly large number of residents of Korea, Japan, and China lack the gene responsible for processing alcohol in the body. Based on this, more than 25 percent of the population of the above-mentioned countries do not drink alcoholic beverages. Doctors from Chile are concerned about the health of local residents, since sociological studies show a rapid annual increase in the number of people who drink alcohol systematically.
In just a few months, Chilean scientists plan to begin experiments with the newly invented vaccine. Initially, the vaccine's effect will be tested on laboratory rodents, and only then on volunteer patients from several drug treatment clinics in the country.
Scientists report that according to preliminary data, after vaccination, a person will not develop a visual aversion to alcohol; the vaccinated patient will be able to look at alcohol and talk about it without any visible changes in consciousness. But just one sip of even a weak alcoholic drink will lead to symptoms of a severe hangover, which is familiar to anyone who has become addicted to alcohol. This reaction of the body is due to the fact that the vaccine slows down the liver and blocks the synthesis of an enzyme that has the ability to process alcohol. Immediately after drinking alcohol, the vaccinated person begins vomiting, severe nausea, rapid heartbeat, general weakness and malaise.
After conducting experiments on animals and determining a dose safe for human life, studies will be conducted on patients with different stages of alcoholism. If the experiment is successful, scientists claim that the drug will be very popular in Asian and European countries, where the number of alcohol addicts is growing every day. According to experts, the drug will enter the pharmaceutical market in two years, and the Indian Ministry of Health has preliminarily agreed to purchase the vaccine for the entire adult population of the country.
The main advantage of this drug is that its effect cannot be neutralized and after vaccination for 6-12 months the body's reaction to alcohol will be the same: severe discomfort, identical in symptoms to a hangover. Scientists claim that the duration of the vaccination should be enough to cure a patient who suffers from alcoholism; in six months of life without alcohol, a person gets used to a new way of life.