ArticlePsychopharmacology2018
Calcium chloride mimics the effects of acamprosate on cognitive deficits in chronic alcohol-exposed mice.
Article in Psychopharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Good Practice Guideline for Preclinical Alcohol Research: The STRINGENCY Framework.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Guideline
- The effects of sub-chronic calcium treatment on ethanol-induced dopamine elevation and the alcohol deprivation effect in the rat.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Plasma apolipoproteins and memory function in alcohol use disorder: Findings in male C57BL/6J mice and men suggest a role for APOAI.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Article
- Animal Models of Excessive Alcohol Consumption in Rodents.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Acamprosate reduces ethanol intake in the rat by a combined action of different drug components.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Alcohol-induced damage to the fimbria/fornix reduces hippocampal-prefrontal cortex connection during early abstinence.Acta neuropathologica communications · 2023Article
- The effects of acamprosate on prefrontal cortical function are mimicked by CaCl2 and they are influenced by the history of alcohol exposure.Neuropharmacology · 2022Article
- Plasma calcium concentration during detoxification predicts neural cue-reactivity and craving during early abstinence in alcohol-dependent patients.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2022Article
- The Effect of Chronic Alcohol on Cognitive Decline: Do Variations in Methodology Impact Study Outcome? An Overview of Research From the Past 5 Years.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Review
- A novel mouse model for vulnerability to alcohol dependence induced by early-life adversity.Neurobiology of stress · 2020Article
- Impact of Substance Use Disorder Pharmacotherapy on Executive Function: A Narrative Review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleAcamprosate (calcium-bis N-acetylhomotaurinate) is the leading medication approved for the maintenance of abstinence, shown to reduce craving and relapse in animal models and human alcoholics. Acamprosate can improve executive functions that are impaired by chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) exposure. Recent work has suggested that acamprosate's effects on relapse prevention are due to its calcium component, which raises the question whether its pro-cognitive effects are similarly mediated by calcium.
objectivesThis study examined the effects of acamprosate on alcohol-induced behavioral deficits and compared them with the effects of the sodium salt version of N-acetylhomotaurinate or calcium chloride, respectively.
methodsWe exposed mice to alcohol via three cycles of CIE and measured changes in alcohol consumption in a limited-access paradigm. We then compared the effects of acamprosate and calcium chloride (applied subchronically for 3 days during withdrawal) in a battery of cognitive tasks that have been shown to be affected by chronic alcohol exposure.
resultsCIE-treated animals showed deficits in attentional set-shifting and deficits in novel object recognition. Alcohol-treated animals showed no impairments in social novelty detection and interaction, or delayed spontaneous alternation. Both acamprosate and calcium chloride ameliorated alcohol-induced cognitive deficits to comparable extents. In contrast, the sodium salt version of N-acetylhomotaurinate did not reverse the cognitive deficits.
conclusionsThese results add evidence to the notion that acamprosate produces its anti-relapse effects through its calcium moiety. Our results also suggest that improved regulation of drug intake by acamprosate after withdrawal might at least in part be related to improved cognitive function.
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