Dr. Leigh Walker led a study that showed that when a certain chemical is removed from the brain, males drink more and females drink less. But when the alcoholic drinks are sweetened, female consumption goes up.
, depression, anxiety, and reward-related behavior, including those around drinking alcohol.
Dr. Walker, working closely with graduate researcher Xavier Maddern and other Florey researchers, studied the effect of inhibiting CART in mice that were trained to drink alcohol. "Alcohol has an underlying bitter taste," Dr. Walker said."When we inhibited CART in male mice their drinking increased. And when we knocked out the same brain chemical in female mice, they drank less. But when the alcohol was sweetened, the female mice drank more. This tells us that without CART, alcohol is unpalatable to females."
Alcohol use contributes to about 3 million global deaths each year with alcohol misuse accounting for 5.1% of the global disease burden, while rates of risky drinking and alcohol use disorders"If we can find a way in future research to target the CART neuropeptide system, we may be able to create treatments to help women curb excessive alcohol use.
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