Cocaine addiction?

A study conducted by scientists at Baylor College of Medicine (USA) showed that a single dose of vaccine could help cocaine addicts resist the urge to smoke. This is a new step in treating drug addiction.

Dr. Nora Volkow Although the test results are not perfect, the researchers believe that the initial success promises to bring a vaccine that will be widely used in the treatment of drug addiction in the next few years.

" This is a very important study. It is clear that research can create vaccines that can prevent the effects of cocaine on the brain ," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute for Ghost Abuse. drug, say.

The results came just days after the government agency announced plans for the first phase of a trial to help addicts quit smoking. The NicVAX vaccine was quickly tested by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The approach of cocaine and nicotine vaccines is exactly the same, they like the immune system to produce antibodies that bind to drug molecules and neutralize their effects on the brain.

In the new study, antibodies against cocaine have helped addicts feel very refreshed and help 40% of people to participate in the reliever test and no longer have the cravings, at least during treatment. .

With about 2 million cocaine addicts all over the United States and untreated, 'treatment results are quite satisfactory - better than no treatment, ' said Dr. Thomas Kosten of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, who has Creating the vaccine used in this study, said.

The study was conducted with 115 cocaine addicts and also addicted to heroin. These people are receiving methadone treatment at New Haven Medical Center, Connecticut. For more than 12 weeks, all participants received 5 anti-addiction vaccines or one drug that did not work.

After that, these people were followed up for another 12 weeks. Every week, all addicts also take anti-relapse therapy, blood antibody tests and check the amount of cocaine and heroin in the urine.

Results showed that 21 people - 38% - received cocaine vaccine developed antibodies to fight cocaine. In this group, 53% of people stopped using cocaine for more than a quarter of the time of the trial and only 23% developed low antibodies.

' Although the level of success is not high, the results of the study show that cocaine treatment with vaccines is very good ,' said Dr. Kyle Kampman, of the University of Pennsylvania, who did not participate in the study. above, comment. " We need breakthrough methods because cocaine addiction is a very difficult disease to treat thoroughly ."