Biological markers of alcohol consumption and effect of calcitonin in nonalcoholic men: A prospective, double-blind study

The objective of this study was to study the ability of biological markers of alcohol consumption in differentiating subjects below weekly consumption of 400 or 600 g of absolute ethanol from those above, and to study the effect of intranasal calcitonin on alcohol drinking. A prospective 12-week double-blind study that used anonymous data collection with drinking diaries was done. The drug that was studied (calcitonin or placebo) was used during study weeks 5-8. This study was performed at the research unit of a university hospital. The subjects consisted of 59-nine men aged 26 to 57 years who considered themselves as regular but modest drinkers and were recruited by advertisements. The measurements were obtained from monthly questionnaires and daily anonymous diaries for alcohol drinking data, and biological markers of alcohol consumption (aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, beta hexosaminidase, and carbohydrate deficient transferrin). The results indicated intranasal calcitonin with a dose of 200 IU three times a week had no effect on alcohol use. All biological markers studied had only a modest ability to differentiate those with weekly alcohol consumption of 400 or 600 g or over from those below these limits. The areas under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve with the limit 400 g/week were 0.71 for aspartate aminotransferase, 0.61 for alanine aminotransferase, 0.74 for gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, 0.68 for beta-hexosaminidase, and 0.78 for carbohydrate deficient transferrin. Respective numbers for the 600-g limit were more uniform. As evaluated by ROC analysis, carbohydrate deficient transferrin was the best biological marker to find men with weekly alcohol consumption over 400 g. Intranasal salmon calcitonin had no affect on alcohol drinking.