The Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH) is delighted to have received an important scientific award: the AGNP Prize for Research in Psychopharmacology, endowed with 5,000 euros, was awarded to Prof. Dr. Dr. Patrick Bach, head of the Neuroenhancement working group at the CIMH. This is the 18th time that the Association for Neuropsychopharmacology and Pharmacopsychiatry (AGNP) has honoured outstanding research achievements in the field of psychopharmacology.
New perspectives for the treatment of alcohol addiction
The results of the ICONIC study were honoured. The award-winning study shows that the administration of cannabidiol (CBD) can significantly reduce the craving for alcohol in people with alcohol dependence. At the same time, a reduced reactivation of the reward system in the brain (nucleus accumbens) to alcohol-specific stimuli was observed. These results open up new perspectives for the pharmacological treatment of alcohol dependence. The study was supported by a grant from the Hetzler Foundation.
The AGNP awards its research prize every two years as part of the joint congress with the German Society for Biological Psychiatry (DGBP). The prize is awarded for work that provides new impetus for the development, diagnosis or treatment of mental illnesses and has been published in international peer-reviewed journals.
More information
The award-winning publication:
Zimmermann S., Teetzmann A., Baeßler J., Schreckenberger L., Zaiser J., Pfisterer M., Stenger M., Bach P.: Die akute Verabreichung von Cannabidiol reduziert das Verlangen nach Alkohol und die Aktivierung des Nucleus accumbens bei Personen mit Alkoholkonsumstörung: die doppelblinde, randomisierte, kontrollierte ICONIC-Studie. In: Molekulare Psychiatrie (2024). doi: 10.1038/s41380-024-02869-y