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Cocaine vaccine?
Submitted by Rachel Ayres on January 4, 2008 - 2:00am.
So apparently they are attempting to develop a vaccine to treat cocaine addiction.. should be interesting...
This is an excerpt from the article on CBC News:
"For people who have a desire to stop using, the vaccine should be very useful," said Dr. Tom Kosten, a psychiatry professor at Baylor College of Medicine who is being assisted in the research by his wife, Therese, a psychologist and neuroscientist. "At some point, most users will give in to temptation and relapse, but those for whom the vaccine is effective won't get high and will lose interest."
(I've heard the same thing about methadone... )
I guess they began their research back in '99, and had some positive results:
Vaccines that block the addictive rush of cocaine and amphetamines have been successfully tested in laboratory animals, scientists at California's Scripps Research Institute have announced.
The researchers said they hope to begin tests on humans later this year.
More resources:
NIDA- Research report series : Cocaine Addiction
NCBI - Future of anti-addiction vaccines
Any thoughts?
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ya, I just read about this
ya, I just read about this the other day. It won't be ready for awhile now though. Of course, lot's of questions will have to be answered as soon as it is.
A vaccine is not the same as methadone since it quells the affects of cocaine use, so it doesn't replace them. Meth mimics the affects that heroin and morph have on the body. So the application of such a vaccine will be quite different from meth.
I still don't really understand what kind of impact this might have on a societal level.
"Won't get high and will lose interest ..."
is an ambiguous statement. If this drug works on at least a small percentage of users you gotta ask: who would we get to dispense this vaccine and under what conditions may such a vaccine be offered/forced?
Got any answers? I'm curious about Britain's approach to heroin addiction: forceful withdrawal through confinement. Could we even consider such tactics here in Canada? Forceful injection? I wanna know what you think Rachel.
losing interest
yes, I understand that it is fundamentally a different process.
What reminded me of methadone was precisely that statement about when taking the vaccine if they use coke they "Won't get high and will lose interest ...".
I've heard that same statement about someone on methadone using opioids.
Definitely not written like an addict or someone who has experienced addiction first hand.
I am not claiming to be an expert myself but this just seems to me to be a very flawed statement.
What makes me nervous is that I don't think it will always be the case for an addict, finding themselves not getting a high off their drug of choice, to simply "lose interest".
I think that many will turn to other types of drugs or other methods to get the high they crave.
People cheek their methadone and then inject it to get a high off it.
Hell, people have taken to cooking up and injecting Fentanyl patches which has a potency of approx 80x that of morphine (apparently 'drop dead' and 'suicide packets' are street terms for fentanyl products as overdoses can often be fatal)
I think that we need to start taking a more wholistic approach to addiction treatment.
Perhaps this treatment coupled with therapy would work really well, but I think taking away someones crutch and not giving them the skills/coping mechanisms they need to survive without it can be fatal (1,2)People are abusing drugs for a reason and eliminating the specific drug does not always eliminate the problem.
That's just my two cents.
-Rachel.
Totally agree with you
Totally agree with you Rachel.
I'm not one to always suggest academic work on the subject but I really dig Bruce Alexander's approach to understanding addiction - I think Brant is also a fan of his research.
One of his best articles on the subject can be found here: http://www.vifamily.ca/library/transition/342/342.html
Look for the title: Finding the Roots of Addiction
His central idea is "dislocation". Dislocation from community is the leading cause (what he calls "precursor") to addictive behaviour.
Of course, even though you understand the concepts already, research like this is good to use when lobbying governments and convincing others about the wholistic nature to the problem. And there's stuff there about Vancouver's history I hadn't learnt before.