Vaccines To Stop Cocaine Addiction Being Tested

09 January 2011

Once you are hooked on drugs, it will take a time to recover. Withdrawal symptoms and a sense of euphoria will always be at hand for those who have been victims of drug addiction and wanting to change.

But with the introduction of a cocaine vaccine, all the pains and burdens of a recovering patient will soon be over. Recently, a couple, who were both doctors, presented their innovative cocaine vaccine, which is believed to be the first in the market that will ease the treatments for drug addicts.


Baylor College of Medicine researchers Dr. Tom Kosten, a psychiatry professor and his wife Therese, a psychologist and neuroscientist in Houston joined forces in creating a remedy for cocaine addiction. Dr. Kosten said with their discovery people who have the eagerness to stop taking cocaine will be helped by the new vaccine.

As the vaccine is injected to the patients, the victims will no longer feel the special "highness" and the satisfaction that they used to experience should they be tempted to take again prohibited drugs. Most will surely refrain from taking in cocaine as they will be losing interest in what they used to take.
Based on initial clinical studies, the vaccine attacks the immune system. This results in the inability of the body system to recognize the cocaine taken in, whether cocaine or other variants, responsible in stimulating brain activity and generating a sense of highness among drug addicts.

The vaccine, according to the researchers, inactivates the molecules of cocaine and prevents them from getting into the brain. As this happens the drug-taker will not experience euphoria or a special feeling of highness.

Dr. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist of the same hospital, said this is a great discovery since most scientists for the past decades were analyzing how to block the pathways of the drugs like cocaine going to the brain. But with the new vaccine, it is a solution to that long problem.

The vaccine has already been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for trial, which will be tested in spring. If this will work, this will be helpful in rehabilitating the conditions of the drug patients. But critics are saying this may not work in some patients.
Read more of his blogs at http://maynard_delfin.instablogs.com

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