Trial reportBiological psychiatry2014
Intravenous ghrelin administration increases alcohol craving in alcohol-dependent heavy drinkers: a preliminary investigation.
Trial report in Biological psychiatry, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 97 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effects of Ghrelin on Alcohol Cue Reactivity and Craving
Effects of Ghrelin on Alcohol Administration in Non-Treatment Seeking Heavy Drinkers
A Novel Compound for Alcoholism Treatment: A Translational Strategy
Who cites it
97 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 158 citations in OpenAlex.
- Animal studies reveal that the ghrelin pathway regulates alcohol-mediated responses.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic results from a randomized controlled study with the growth hormone secretagogue receptor blocker PF-5190457 in recently abstinent patients with alcohol use disorder.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Trial
- A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of a GHSR blocker in people with alcohol use disorder.JCI insight · 2024Trial
- Ghrelin decreases sensitivity to negative feedback and increases prediction-error related caudate activity in humans, a randomized controlled trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Mifepristone as a pharmacological intervention for stress-induced alcohol craving: A human laboratory study.Addiction biology · 2023Trial
- A randomized controlled experimental medicine study of ghrelin in value-based decision making.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2023Trial
- A closer look at alcohol-induced changes in the ghrelin system: novel insights from preclinical and clinical data.Addiction biology · 2022Trial
- Alcohol-related changes in behaviors and characteristics from the baseline to the randomization session for treatment and non-treatment seeking participants with alcohol use disorder.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2021Trial
- Effect of intravenous ghrelin administration, combined with alcohol, on circulating metabolome in heavy drinking individuals with alcohol use disorder.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2021Trial
- A population-based investigation of the association between alcohol intake and serum total ghrelin concentrations among cigarette-smoking, non-alcohol-dependent male individuals.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Trial
- Neuroendocrine Response to Exogenous Ghrelin Administration, Combined With Alcohol, in Heavy-Drinking Individuals: Findings From a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Human Laboratory Study.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Trial
- Differences in Sociodemographic and Alcohol-Related Clinical Characteristics Between Treatment Seekers and Nontreatment Seekers and Their Role in Predicting Outcomes in the COMBINE Study for Alcohol Use Disorder.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2020Trial
- Trial
- Acute Effect of Eating Sweets on Alcohol Cravings in a Sample with At-Risk Drinking.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2020Trial
- Exogenous ghrelin administration increases alcohol self-administration and modulates brain functional activity in heavy-drinking alcohol-dependent individuals.Molecular psychiatry · 2018Trial
- Pharmacological manipulation of the ghrelin system and alcohol hangover symptoms in heavy drinking individuals: Is there a link?Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2018Trial
- Leptin levels are reduced by intravenous ghrelin administration and correlated with cue-induced alcohol craving.Translational psychiatry · 2015Trial
- Alcohol Exposure Alters the Ghrelin System: In Vitro Mechanistic Insights Into Impaired Glucose Sensing and Enhanced Ghrelin Secretion.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- GHSR antagonist LEAP2 concentrations negatively correlate with alcohol craving and are modulated by alcohol exposure: Evidence from human and rat studies.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Pharmacotherapy for Alcohol Craving Reduction: Efficacy of Short-Term Treatments in Alcohol Use Disorder.Medicines (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
37 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThere is a need to identify novel pharmacologic targets to treat alcoholism. Animal and human studies suggest a role for ghrelin in the neurobiology of alcohol dependence and craving. Here, we were the first to test the hypothesis that intravenous administration of exogenous ghrelin acutely increases alcohol craving.
methodsThis was a double-blind, placebo-controlled human laboratory proof-of-concept study. Nontreatment-seeking, alcohol-dependent, heavy-drinking individuals were randomized to receive intravenous ghrelin 1 mcg/kg, 3 mcg/kg or 0 mcg/kg (placebo), followed by a cue-reactivity procedure, during which participants were exposed to neutral (juice) and alcohol cues. The primary outcome variable was the increase in alcohol craving (also called urge) for alcohol, assessed by the Alcohol Visual Analogue Scale.
resultsOut of 103 screenings, 45 individuals received the study drug. Repeated measures of analysis of covariance revealed a group effect across ghrelin doses in increasing alcohol craving (p < .05). A dose-specific examination revealed a significant effect of ghrelin 3 mcg/kg versus placebo in increasing alcohol craving (p < .05) with a large effect size (d = .94). By contrast, no significant ghrelin effect was found in increasing either urge to drink juice or food craving (p = ns). No significant differences in side effects were found (p = ns).
conclusionsIntravenous administration of exogenous ghrelin increased alcohol craving in alcohol-dependent heavy-drinking individuals. Although the small sample requires confirmatory studies, these findings provide preliminary evidence that ghrelin may play a role in the neurobiology of alcohol craving, thus demonstrating a novel pharmacologic target for treatment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.