Cocaine is a drug which produces extreme effects upon both a person’s mind and their body. The impact upon the brain is so intense that the drug actually changes the normal function of the brain. The body experiences short-term effects but is also impacted long-term, sometimes in ways that last for the remainder of a person’s life.
Rehab programs focus extensive practices and methods on enabling patients to rid their body of addictive drugs and regain a life without reliance on the substance. These programs are focused on teaching people how to live without their addiction, yet the temptation will always remain.
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The search for effective treatment of cocaine addiction could finally be taking a hopeful turn according to a research study recently published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. The study gives hope to those working with coke addicts because until now FDA-approved medications addressed only the symptoms of cocaine withdrawal.
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Cocaine that has been contaminated with a de-worming drug commonly used by veterinarians seems to be causing a skin disorder in cocaine users. Purpura, a condition that causes crusty, purplish areas of dead skin that are extremely painful and can lead to severe infections, has been associated with contaminated cocaine in several cases.
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New research has found that a vaccine can block the effects of cocaine by combining elements of the common cold virus with a particle that mimics cocaine. This could be the first medication to treat cocaine addiction, and could help treat other addictions, such as nicotine and opiates.
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A new study has found that nearly one is five white individuals carries a genetic variant that significantly increases his or her odds of severely abusing cocaine. This variant, which is characterized by tiny gene mutations, changes the brain’s response to the rewarding effects of substances such as cocaine. Ohio State University researchers found that carriers of the variant were more than three times more likely to be susceptible to cocaine abuse, which can lead to overdose and death.
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Researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine have become the first to find a link between specific neurons and alterations in the “reward” people feel after taking cocaine. Mary Kay Lobo, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and first author of the study, said that they found that the two main neurons in the nucleus accumbens (an important part of the brain’s reward center) have opposite effects on cocaine reward.
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Treatment centers that work with cocaine addicts in their recovery are working against a number of effects that make cocaine a dangerous substance. Lethargy, depression, psychosis, and physiological damage are possible dangers when dealing with cocaine dependence, along with the risk of fatal overdose. As with many addictive substances, once an individual completes treatment, they are still at a high risk for relapse.
A researcher from the University of Cincinnati was awarded a $2.5 million five-year grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to develop a potential immunotherapy for cocaine addiction. One of the four winner of the NIDA’s first Translational Avant-Garde Awards for Innovative Medication Development Research, Andrew Norman, PhD, is a professor in the psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience department at the University of Cincinnati.
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Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan is blaming her father for her own interest in cocaine, as he is a former drug addict. Lindsay has been in rehab three times since 2007, and has been caught with cocaine by police.
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