John David Sinclair

‘John’ David Sinclair was born March 28, 1943, in Bluefield, West Virginia and grew up in Fairmont. He was the son of the late John and June Biddle Sinclair, having a sister Vicki and brother Stephen.^[1]

He graduated from Fairmont Senior High School, and attended Carnegie Tech University. At the University of Cincinnati he was a teaching and research assistant from 1963-1967 whilst gaining his bachelor’s degree (1965) and his master’s degree (1967). From 1967-1970 he was National Defence Education Act fellow at University of Oregon, Eugene, and from 1970—1971, National Science Foundation trainee, gaining his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (1972).^[1]

Sinclair’s research work for his masters degree and Ph.D led to the discovery of the Alcohol Deprivation Effect (ADE). Contrary to earlier beliefs, detoxification and alcohol deprivation did not stop alcohol craving but in fact increased subsequent alcohol drinking.^[2][3]

After getting his doctorate in 1972 from the University of Oregon on the ADE, Sinclair immediately went to Helsinki to work at Alko Laboratories (now part of Finland's National Public Health Institute). Research here showed that alcohol drinking is a learned behavior^[4] and in most cases the reinforcement from alcohol involved the opioid system, i.e., the same system where morphine, heroin, and endorphin produce their effects.^[5] Taking an opioid antagonist such as naltrexone or nalmefene, reduces the reinforcement such that a person is no longer interested in alcohol.^[6]

This solution, pharmacological extinction, became apparent when he wrote The Rest Principle: A Neurophysiological Theory of Behavior. The Sinclair Method, as the protocol has been named, was the subject of a large body of laboratory studies^[7] and used in over 90 clinical trials around the world.^[8][9]

The Sinclair Method, which is simply taking an opioid antagonist before drinking, has been found to be successful in about 80% of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) sufferers. The method’s unconventional requirement for drinking to continue during treatment conflicts with the tenants of traditional abstinence-based treatment, and is a significant barrier to wider acceptance by the treatment community.^[10] More recent publications have seen greater acceptance by medical professionals.^[11]

He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, International Society for biomedical Research on Alcoholism, International Behavioral Neurosci. Society, and Research Society on Alcoholism.^[12]