Pill that makes people drink less alcohol

London: A pill that makes alcoholics want to drink less has been developed by scientists for the first time, The Telegraph reported Tuesday.

The drug is thought to work by blocking mechanisms in the brain that give alcoholics enjoyment from drink and so helps them fight the urge to drink too much. It only needs to be taken when people were going out where they might be tempted to drink alcohol. Alcoholics taking the drug and having counselling more than halved the amount of alcohol they drank per day and binged on fewer days. The findings were presented at the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) congress in Prague. The drug, developed by Lundbeck pharmaceutical company, called nalmefene, is not licensed yet and is currently undergoing clinical trials. IANS