Getting drunk without hangovers or liver damage?

Dominus Atheos · Post by **Dominus Atheos** » 2006-04-14 04:30pm

Synthehol is a science-fictional substitute for alcohol that appears on the Star Trek:The Next Generation television series. It allows drinkers to experience all of the enjoyable, intoxicating effects of alcohol without unpleasant side-effects like hangovers.

Professor David Nutt, a psychopharmacologist at the University of Bristol in the UK, believes that there is no scientific reason why it cannot be created now.

Alcohol works in the brain mainly by latching onto signalling molecules called GABA-A receptors. There are dozens of subtypes of these; not all of them are associated with specific effects of alcohol. For example, memory loss may occur in conjuction with drinking because alcohol binds to alpha-5, a GABA-A receptor subtype in the hippocampus.

Professor Nutt suggests that if molecules that bind poorly to the bad subtypes like alpha-5 could be developed, it would be possible to retain the pleasant effects of alcohol without the bad side-effects.

Some "partial agonists" of GABA-A receptors already exist; bretazenil and pagoclone were developed as anti-anxiety drugs. These drug molecules are instantly reversible by the flumazenil, used as an antidote to overdoses of tranquillisers.

Perhaps most interesting is the idea that problems like cirrhosis of the liver could be eliminated by altering the composition of alcoholic beverages. Nutt will publish this idea in the Journal of Psychopharmacology next month.

Link

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2006-04-14 04:34pm

A drug with no side-effects (other than possibly addiction) would be pretty neat, assuming people didn't stay constantly high on it.

ArmorPierce · Post by **ArmorPierce** » 2006-04-14 11:17pm

I thought that you couldn't get drunk on Synthehol.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2006-04-14 11:19pm

ArmorPierce wrote:I thought that you couldn't get drunk on Synthehol.

You could, but IIRC you could easily slough off the inebriation willingly.

muse · Post by **muse** » 2006-04-14 11:56pm

I think I'll stick to eating magic muffins...

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-04-15 04:59am

Old Plympto wrote:
ArmorPierce wrote:I thought that you couldn't get drunk on Synthehol.
You could, but IIRC you could easily slough off the inebriation willingly.

I don't think it's ever explicitly stated (although apparently it doesn't taste quite as good, according to Scotty) but supposedly the original concept for synthehol was that you could get a good buzz on it, but if something happened to trigger a stress responce - like a red alert being sounded - then the hormones produced by the body would immediately break down the synthehol and sober you up quickly. Plus, there'd be no hangovers. Supposedly.

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2006-04-15 08:34am

I don't think it would get you as drunk as with alcohol either. Data gives a brief explanation in that episode, but I can't for the life of me remember what he said.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2006-04-15 08:49am

Let's see...either it goes in SLAM or N&P?

I'll just pick SLAM.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2006-04-15 10:34am

Cool...but what kind of drink can you put that stuff in?
I doubt you could just replace the alcohol in a drink with it - it just wouldn't be the same.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2006-04-15 11:04am

Molyneux wrote:Cool...but what kind of drink can you put that stuff in?
I doubt you could just replace the alcohol in a drink with it - it just wouldn't be the same.

Especially since much of the alcohol comes from how the drink itself is made/distilled/fermented/what have you. Example: Without being aged in a barrel for several years, Scotch wouldn't be scotch.

You could replicate Scotch, I'm sure; but it'd be an amber-colored beverage with syntheol in it. I imagine there would be some fairly stringent regulation covering what you can and cannot label various drinks. Labels would be required to have notations such as "Alcohol-Free Syntheol Substituted" and the like.

Red Star · Post by **Red Star** » 2006-04-15 12:23pm

That would be pretty sweet, but would it take more to get you drunk?

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2006-04-15 12:28pm

*waggles a bottle of Vodka*

Well, it might cause liver damage, I suppose. In excess.

NoXion · Post by **NoXion** » 2006-04-15 01:09pm

I believe there was a small village in Ireland that took to drinking Diethyl Ether instead of alcohol.

Does ether have any longterm health implications?