HIGH HOPES: Vaccines to decrease cocaine use have been in the works for years, but this new trial has had some encouraging results.
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Unlike opiates such as heroin or prescription painkillers, there is no medication specifically approved to help curb cocaine consumption. Now, an experimental vaccine offers hope for a new approach, researchers say, that spurs on antibodies, which bind with cocaine molecules and apparently helps some addicts stop feeling the pleasurable effects of the drug—thus deconditioning them out of their dependency.
Cocaine, both inhaled powder form and smoked "crack" cocaine, accounts for about one in three drug-related emergency room admissions, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And it has about 1.4 million users in the U.S., Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), said in a press briefing held today to announce the vaccine findings. Developing a simple vaccine to help addicts stop taking the drug would be a large step in decreasing the overall number of people who use it, many of whom, Volkow noted, are between the ages of 18 and 25.
The vaccine itself does not destroy cocaine molecules, rather it induces antibodies that bind to it, making the stimulant lose its ability to pass through the blood–brain barrier—and thus unable to trigger a high.*
To test the vaccine's effectiveness in humans, researchers (with some help and financial backing from Celtic Pharma) enlisted 94 subjects who had enrolled in a methadone treatment program for opiate addiction—and who also regularly used cocaine—for a placebo-controlled, double-blind study. (They decided on this group because methadone programs historically have better retention rates than programs for cocaine abuse only.) One group received a placebo, another a low dosage of vaccine, whereas a third was administered a high dosage over a series of 12 weeks with five total injections.
More than half of the subjects in the high-dosage group (53 percent) appeared to have laid off the cocaine for more than half of the trial period, the researchers report after tracking traces of the drug in urine samples collected three times a week. Just less than a quarter of subjects with the low dosage had the same track record, according to the results published online yesterday in the Archives of General Psychiatry. A drop in cocaine usage across all groups may also be attributed to a curb in opiate drug consumption from the methadone treatment.
Despite the overall decrease in cocaine use, only 38 percent of the subjects taking the high levels of vaccine achieved sufficient levels of antibodies to prevent the absorption of cocaine into the brain. And of this minority, the functional levels of antibodies were present starting only after two months from the first vaccine and were in decline 16 to 24 weeks into the trial.
Thomas Kosten, a professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and a lead study author, is confident that with better vaccine ingredients (theirs used a traditional cholera toxin strengthened with an aluminum hydroxide adjuvant), the vaccine's effectiveness could be improved to as high as 80 percent. In animal trials, he noted, with newer vaccines donated from pharmaceutical companies the researchers found more than four times the amount of antibodies in the rats.
Although the vaccine lessened or negated participants' ability to feel high from the drug, many of the trial participants still consumed cocaine—and at levels far higher than normal. Such so-called "testing," as Kosten noted in the press briefing, was expected and is seen in animal experiments, as well. And even after having warned trial volunteers about the potential dangers of challenging the dosage limits when they couldn't reach an expected high, some showed as much as 10 times the habitual amount of cocaine in their urine until, he said, they likely just ran out of money.
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17 Comments
Add CommentSeriously? This is really just another attempt at extorting billions of dollars from addicts (like the treatment industry, where it isn't uncommon for addicts to appear again and again). Medications won't make an addict quit. Treatment won't make an addict quit. An intense desire to quit, coupled with a support network, hope for one's future, friends and loved ones and a spiritual serenity is what it takes. Most important is the desire to quit. If someone wants to get high, they will try. No pill will stop that. People get high because it get's them out of their bland, bleak, miserable existence. You want to help people quit, give them hope for a better future, the life they want -- with love, friends, a satisfying job, a decent place to live, etc. Why would someone want to quit if their life would continue to be miserable? Getting high might be their only pleasure, their only escape. This is what pill and treatment pushers fail to address. The intense loneliness, emptiness, existential anxiety, boredom and frustration of the addict must be dealt with.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVaccinate the natural, sell the artificial.. everyone.. wins?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen will come to chicago? That would be a dream come true to get vaccinated. I've done everything else to quit for ten years and I'm about giving up,but mabey this is new hope. you know that Dr.Peng Win(a couple comments above me)says you need a strong desire and/or mabey it is cause we need an escape our mierable life.Well for me I've had a strong desire for nine years and I don't realy have a miserable life.The crack is what makes life miserable for me.I would love to not feen because I can't get high anymore with this vaccine.that would truly be a dream. Wow would it be to enjoy weekends with my freinds and family like cookouts going to the movies,which I love, fishing and not feening and always ditching them all the time. I real hate being so addicted to this nasty drug and Ihope it gets around this nation in a hurry.SO MANY NEED THIS!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"The vaccine itself does not destroy cocaine molecules, rather it induces antibodies that bind to it, making the opiate lose its ability to pass through the bloodbrain barrierand thus unable to trigger a high."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCocaine is not an opiate.
Indeed not, in the strict sense. And it would be a poor context for a figurative "opiate of the people" type usage. I think this is almost certainly an error on the writer's part. These things happen, especially in science journalism, and the writer's confusion really only mirrors the apparent confusion of the experimental design, which involves polydrug abusers undergoing polydrug addiction treatment and fails totally to distinguish between effects that might be due to methadone and those that might be due to the vaccine in question. If there's an editor in the loop here, I think he or she probably shares in the blame for choosing this story in the first place.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think I've seen this movie before.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'll have to dust off the journals to find the name of the specific compound, but something like this was tested for alcohol a few years back. It completely nullified the effects of alcohol on the central nervous system. Seems great, but it was disastrous for treating alcoholism. The alcoholic doesn't get drunk, so he/she just keeps drinking.
Turns out that you can keep an addicting from getting high, but doing that will not automatically stop an addict from seeking that high.
"Anabuse," isn't it?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't think so, anabuse makes you vomit if you consume alcohol. The compound that I was referring to functioned exactly as the vaccine in this article is described. The substance is still in the blood stream, but it does not cross the blood-brain barrier to make the user high/drunk. The problem with alcohol is that it can still poison the body, so participants were being hurt badly when they consumed (just like in this article) far more than normal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYeah, you comment about "extortion", but that's a big word for such a small mind. The truth is, no matter what the cost, a true vaccination for cocaine would solve millions of problems stemming from direct addiction to the consequences for innocent people in lew of addiction. My mother did not die because cocaine failed to work in her system; she died because nothing except the drug itself told her to take more... and when the drug says "hey dumbass, I don't work any more", then cocaine addicts might say, "hey, well if I can't depend on you, I am going to stop and move on"... potentially to a worse drug, yes... but not the drug cocaine which took my mother's life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisgs 790, or g-string 790, your mouth is full of shit and you should clean it out. Anabuse makes it terrible for alcoholics to drink and in AA, many have tolf me about their attempts to keep drinking while using the drug.... however, it made taking the drug alcohol a horrible experience. It is on the psychological notion of "taste aversion", the simplest and most profound and easily remembered association among animals... If an animal eats something that makes them sick, then it is more likely than any other stimuli that the animal will not consume the taste (or drug) again. Even if the animal receives an electric shock... they will consume more again if the taste is right. In conclusion, up your nose with a rubber hose you pro-drug ass monger.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswell iv been on an off struggling first at 15 with snorting coke then onto crack im now 39'also this is my first time on a computer.any help out there to fuck this addiction off please tell me please lv lulu x
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisis there any vacine or tablet people can have to help stop using crack cocaine.please help me and millions of people to push the help in england any help welcome /i wud even b a test guinea pig.to contact me'lulurose@live.co.uk.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor scientific reporting to be more than another form of journalistic stenography or cheerleading, the writer and editor need to provide context. The science (not the PR, but the science), as noted in dozens of critical books covering thousands of scientific studies, show that vaccination in general provides limited to no benefits and a whole host of undesirable effects, producing an untenably high cost to benefit ratio. Thus a central aspect of what such an article should address is how this vaccine will avoid the pitfalls of all the vaccine technology which came before it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn order for a scientific article to rise above mere stenography or cheerleading, it needs to use critical thinking and provide sufficient background and context. This piece fails on those counts, because it declines to discuss the history of actual vaccine performance and the high cost to benefit ratio that scientific vaccine studies have shown consistently for 60 years or more (although these tend to be buried by the sheer volume of marketing PR from the vaccine manufacturers).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow will this vaccine avoid or surmount the issues historically raised by the practice of vaccination? For example, the adjuvants which hyper-stimulate the immune system such as the aluminum hydroxide mentioned above have been shown to lead to persistent inflammation of the brain and be a leading contributor to learning disorders and neurological conditions. Vaccines also ironically have been shown to weaken the immune system for the long term; the more vaccines administered the weaker the immune system and the lesser its ability to respond to an acute threat of infection.
A second key issue not addressed here is that many vaccines have a limited time span of effectiveness (if any at all), and thus periodic revaccination is a part of standard treatment plans. This brings us back to the effects on the brain and immune system of repeated vaccinations. Lastly, what is the ability of the immune system to deal with other infectious agents affected?
The thing that strikes me the most about such high tech approaches to addiction is that it looks past what is already known about addictive behavior: that it is often built on significant nutritional deficiencies. Once those are addressed, cognitive behavioral counseling, acupuncture, and improved dietary habits can go a long way to lowering the recidivism rate of addiction.
Hello all, there are some questions about what to do for addiction. There are some medical prescriptions that will help. Naltrexone will help with any addiction. All addictions work though dopamine pathway that lead one to use and continue (e.g. cocaine, opiates, cigarettes, alcohol, sex, etc). Naltrexone works to mitigate the disease process by blocking the effects of dopamine. Zyban will help with cigarettes. Disulfiram will help with alcohol as well. These have all been shown to work in the above disease processes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe reason these drugs work is due to the fact that addiction is noted to have biochemical and physical contributions, as well as, psychological.
hello, I am french student (Montpellier) and i have to sum up this article and make a presentation to the class.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho can help me please?
I have bad level in english and it is so hard to do this alone.
I think there is any honorable person can do for me.
I agree but some poeple have a hard time quiting alone, and support groups alone cannot fix it all. A means for escape...escape from what? that is what they need to work on...the underlying problems...that is what treatment is all about..i am a former addict who is training to be a counselor....i know we need more caring and understand help out there...
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