Neuroendocrine Response to Exogenous Ghrelin Administration, Combined With Alcohol, in Heavy-Drinking Individuals: Findings From a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Human Laboratory Study

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Ghrelin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The goal of the present study was to provide a comprehensive assessment of neuroendocrine response to exogenous ghrelin administration, combined with alcohol, in heavy-drinking individuals.

Why It Was Studied

Accumulating evidence has established a role for the orexigenic hormone ghrelin in alcohol-seeking behaviors.

Ghrelin modulates several neuroendocrine pathways, such as appetitive, metabolic, and stress-related hormones, which are particularly relevant in the context of alcohol use.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

This was a randomized, crossover, double-blind, placebo-controlled human laboratory study, which included 2 experimental alcohol administration paradigms: i.v. alcohol self-administration and i.v. alcohol clamp.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Because people in this Ghrelin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Ghrelin.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Ghrelin group a baseline to be compared against.

Each person switched between Ghrelin and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

Each paradigm consisted of 2 counterbalanced sessions of i.v. ghrelin or placebo administration.

Repeated blood samples were collected during each session, and peripheral concentrations of the following hormones were measured: leptin, glucagon-like peptide-1, pancreatic polypeptide, gastric inhibitory peptide, insulin, insulin-like growth factor-1, cortisol, prolactin, and aldosterone.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Alcohol Drinking, Alcoholism, Central Nervous System Depressants, Craving, Ethanol, Ghrelin and Neurosecretory Systems.

The authors tagged it with the keywords metabolism, neuroendocrine and stress.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Ghrelin.

Results are reported in around 3 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2021 (The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Ghrelin compound page, all human trials.