Drinkers may have a new way to cut their addiction soon in England and Wales.
A pill called Nalmefene or Selincro is believed to cut the urge to drink for those who are highly dependant on alcohol.
The drug is taken once a day and it blocks the part of the brane where drinkers feel pleasure from alcohol, reports The Guardian. It also stops the drinker from wanting more than one alcoholic beverage.
If NHS passes the drug in its final approval in November, experts speculate the drug could save up to 1,854 lives over five years and prevent about 43,074 alcohol-related diseases and injuries, The Guardian reports.
The drug would be used on women who drink at least five units a day - about half a bottle of wine, reports The Guardian. For men to qualify for the drug, they would have to report drinking over seven units of alcohol a day, or three pints of lager.
When combined with counciling the National Health Service found the drug cuts drinking by 61 percent over six months, according The Guardian reports.
However, Dr Niamh Fitzgerald, a lecturer in Alcohol Studies, Institute for Social Marketing (ISM) at the School of Health Sciences, University of Stirling, warns Telegraph about the dangers of the drug if it's too easy for alcohol abusers to get:
"It would be unfortunate if the availability of nalmefene led to a sense that the appropriate response to these widespread problems was for the NHS to medicate large numbers of people, rather than initiating these other more effective and less costly approaches to reduce consumption."
