[highfrequency]

Very cool, thanks for sharing. Describing it another way:

The goal is to deassociate alcohol with pleasure. One way to do this is to abstain for a long period of time so that the association gradually weakens, but 1) this requires constant willpower and 2) takes a long time for the association to decay.

If you instead take a pill that blocks the pleasure from alcohol consumption, you can undo the association very quickly and with basically 0 willpower (it’s not like your brain currently has an association between taking the pill and experiencing pain).

I have no experience with alcohol dependence, but this is a great confirmation of the reinforcement patterns of the brain.