Putative role of isoquinoline alkaloids in alcoholism: a link to opiates.

Although the isoquinoline hypothesis has stimulated and even tantalized the scientific inquiry of a small number of investigators, it has been an area of widespread controversy. For the most part, until recently, alcohol researchers would ascribe very little importance to the role played by insoquinolines in alcohol actions or in the disease state known as alcoholism. To most, there was adequate evidence that these condensation amines had potent pharmacologic properties but little was known about their biochemical and behavioral interaction with ethanol or opiates. As pointed out here, there is an increasing amount of evidence that indicates the putative role of isoquinolines as regulators of alcohol dependence. There is even evidence that suggests a possible "link" to opiates. If this turns out to be the case, then it is rational to consider the possibility that when one imbibes alcohol a central opiate-like substance is, in essence, produced. It would appear that the sum total of evidence to date supports the notion that there are common territories between the two highly addictive classes of drugs--alcohol and opiates. Although still not definite, future studies may well confirm the intermediacy of the TIQ compounds.