cocaine addiction
CHICAGO -- New research using animal models is enabling a deeper understanding of the neurobiology of compulsive drug addiction in humans -- knowledge that may lead to more effective treatment options to weaken the powerful cravings that cause people to relapse.
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- About 2 million Americans currently use cocaine for its temporary side-effects of euphoria, which have contributed to making it one of the most dangerous and addictive drugs in the country. Cocaine addiction, which can cause severe biological and behavioral problems, is very difficult to overcome.
Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have demonstrated that prairie voles may be a useful model in understanding the neurochemistry of social behavior. By influencing early social experience in prairie voles, researchers hope to gain greater insight into what aspects of early social experience drive diversity in adult social behavior.
Researchers at Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, contributed key comparative data for a landmark study showing African wild chimpanzees infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), an HIV-1-like virus, die prematurely and develop hallmarks of HIV-1 infection and AIDS.
June 26, 2009 - (BRONX, NY) - A variation in a gene that is active in the central nervous system is associated with increased risk for obesity, according to an international study in which Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University played a major role. The research adds to evidence that genes influence appetite and that the brain plays a key role in obesity.
UPTON, NY ? Parts of the brain involved in monitoring behaviors and emotions show different levels of activity in cocaine users relative to non-drug users, even when both groups perform equally well on a psychological test. These results ? from a brain-imaging study conducted at the U.S.
Irvine, Calif., April 1, 2009 -- UC Irvine pharmacological researchers have discovered that blocking a hormone related to hunger regulation can limit cocaine cravings. Their findings could herald a new approach to overcoming addiction.
Researchers have demonstrated that a combination of drug therapies targeting the region of the brain that controls drug abuse and addiction significantly reduces cocaine use in nonhuman primates. These findings, which appear in the June issue of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, have implications for developing treatments for cocaine addiction in humans.
The anti-spasticity medication baclofen holds promise for helping cocaine abusers overcome their addiction, a study by a UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute researcher finds. No medication currently holds U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for treatment of cocaine addiction. Published in the Dec. 15 edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, the randomized, double-blind study found that baclofen used in conjunction with substance abuse counseling significantly reduced cocaine use in recovering addicts compared to placebo coupled with counseling. The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse as part of a project to screen medications with potential for treating cocaine dependence.
New understanding of the changes in brain chemistry caused by chronic cocaine use has suggested a novel treatment that could reduce the intense craving that forms the core of cocaine addiction. "Our studies show that administration of an existing drug ? n-acetyl cysteine, which is used to treat cystic fibrosis and several other disorders ? reverses the changes in brain chemistry that appear to cause cocaine craving," said David A. Baker, a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Peter W. Kalivas at the Medical University of South Carolina.
