Might Diastolic Blood Pressure Indicate a Subtype of Alcohol Use Disorder?

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) has significant individual and societal costs. Identifying biomarkers that predict response to medication, thus allowing clinicians to target treatments to specific individuals, would improve outcomes. Although originally developed to reduce blood pressure (BP), alpha-1 antagonists might also reduce alcohol consumption, according to preliminary studies. Higher standing diastolic BP (DBP) has predicted response to this medication class for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. DBP may be a surrogate marker of elevated noradrenergic tone, which alpha-1 antagonists reduce. To learn more, researchers reanalyzed data on 41 outpatients with alcohol dependence who had been randomized to doxazosin (titrated to a ta…