Researchers are using a fake bar as part of an anti-drinking drug experiment at the National Institutes of Health.
For the experiment, researchers re-created a dimly lit bar with no alcohol to test an anti-drinking pill's effects in an atmosphere usually associated with drinking.
Alcohol is close enough to be smelled in the bar, but none will be served. Instead, bartenders in this fake bar will be serving water with food coloring. The experiment will tell researchers if this new pill will actually kick an alcoholic's urge to drink.
"The goal is to create almost a real-world environment, but to control it very strictly," lead researcher Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, who is testing how a hormone named ghrelin that sparks people's appetite for food also affects their desire for alcohol, said to The Associated Press.
The researchers are using the fake bar to test an an experimental Pfizer drug originally developed for diabetes but never sold. The volunteers in the experiment will be hooked to a blood pressure monitor in the tiny bar-lab, and their cravings will be measured when they smell their favorite drink.
The study with the fake bar has not begun yet, as the researchers first need to make sure mixing alcohol with the drug is safe.
"Our hope is that down the line, we might be able to do a simple blood test that tells if you will be a naltrexone person, an acamprosate person, a ghrelin person," Dr. George Koob, director of NIH's National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, told AP.
About 17 million adults, ages 18 and older, had an alcohol use disorder (AUD) in 2012 - including 11.2 million men and 5.7 million women, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
