Methadone could help cocaine addicts: study

From the Calgary Herald:
Methadone, a drug used for many years to treat heroin addiction, also appears to work well against cocaine addiction, a new Canadian study suggests.

Psychologist Francesco Leri of the University of Guelph has been making rats addicted to cocaine, and then treating them with methadone.

Most of the rats responded well, he says. They lost their powerful urge for cocaine and, in addition, their brains "re-set" themselves into the same pattern that existed before they first used cocaine.

"It can be done tomorrow with humans, and should be done tomorrow," Leri said.

That's because methadone--unlike some new drug -- already exists as a tested drug, with clear prescription rules and clinical staff trained in giving it out.

"There is an entire system that is already in place for the employment of methadone," that could be used for cocaine addicts, Leri said. ...more

Scientists testing vaccine for cocaine users

From the Globe and Mail:
Nothing says drug addiction more than a needle and syringe. But that's exactly what a team of U.S. researchers believes can help cocaine users kick their menacing habit.

Two Baylor College of Medicine scientists based in Houston have developed a cocaine vaccine that creates antibodies that bind to the drug and prevent it from travelling from the bloodstream to the brain.

Unable to penetrate the brain, the drug can produce no high.

If the vaccine makes it through regulatory hurdles, it would be the first medication approved to treat cocaine addiction.

“It certainly is a way of combining immunology that had not been used before,” Tom Kosten, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Baylor, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “We had always thought of altering the brain as a way to prevent drug abuse. This way, the drug never gets into the brain to begin with.” ...more