Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry

The effects of disulfiram implantation therapy have three components : placebo, pharmacological, and psychological effects. However, considering the fact that there is no reported DER(disulfiram-ethanol reaction) in placebo implanted patients and the absorption of implanted disulfiram is not sufficient to produce DER, the major effect of disulfiram implantation is psychological rather than placebo and pharmacological one. Recently, there have been great efforts to develop a new form of disulfiram which could exert a real pharmacological effect through the heightened bioavailability. To illustrate several examples, there are copolymer consisting of disulfiram and polymer such as polyethylene glycol and PLGA(polyglycolic-co-L-lactic acid) and depot in which disulfiram is dissolved into saline solution containing 5% w/v carboxymethylcellulose or 0.1% ploysorbate 80. On the other hand, there has been a continuous research about Me-DTC, an active metabolite of disulfiram, which inhibit ALDH (acetaldehyde dehydrogenase) more potently even at a smaller amount than disulfiram. In the future, it is hoped to develop a new form of disulfiram with high bioavailability at a small amount.

Keywords Psychological effects;Bioavailability;Me-DTC.