14 DAY TRIAL // According to investigators at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, it would appear that the neurotransmitter dopamine can be used efficiently in addressing cocaine and amphetamine addicts. Early tests have provided the team with excellent results.
If the ideas floated by the research team pan out, then doctors may soon have access to a natural treatment against these two types of addiction. Both cocaine and amphetamines hook their users in a tight grip, and many of those who undergo rehabilitation relapse shortly after release.
Thus far, none of the treatments doctors are using has a high success rate, as their efficiency is largely dictated by how much the patients themselves want to get rid of their vices. But the dopamine-based approach could produce observable, objective results.
When it comes to treating heroin addiction, clinicians can administer methadone to their patients, helping them get through their ordeals. But no such chemical exists to calm the effects of amphetamine or cocaine withdrawal, and this puts the new potential treatment in a unique position.
“Treatment for stimulant dependence is difficult and often individuals battling addiction relapse several times,” research team leader Dr. Karen Ersche explains. She holds an appointment with the Cambridge Behavioral and Clinical Neuroscience Institute (BCNI).
In a series of tests the team conducted, participants who were dependent on stimulants and health subjects were asked to complete a learning task, while their brains were hooked up to a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) machine.
When one of the stimuli to which the test subjects had to respond changed, addicted individuals found it very difficult to alter their responses to the overall task. Even when researchers told them repeatedly that what they were doing was wrong, they were unable to help themselves.
“At the moment, the standard treatment for people dependent on cocaine and amphetamines mainly involves behavioral approaches such as counseling and cognitive-behavioral therapy – which are useful,” the team leader explains.
“However, our research provides important insight into the potential development of medications which could help curb the desire of those plagued with addiction, increasing the likelihood of a successful recovery,” she adds.
The experiments provided a new insight into why addicts cannot change their behaviors even if their addictions lead to them losing their jobs, stacking up debts, or losing their closest relationships with others.
However, before the new drug “can be used for the treatment of stimulant-dependent individuals in clinical practice, more research would be needed using multiple doses over longer period of time,” Ersche concludes.