Controlling Cravings

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

For some time, scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have studied gamma-vinyl GABA, or GVG, for its ability to block the neurochemical and behavioral changes associated with addiction. Now they have found that it might also block environment-based cravings. The new study appears today in the European Journal of Pharmacology. "This is the first therapeutic agent that successfully combats three major components of drug addiction¿the neurochemical and behavioral effects of the drug itself and the neurochemical changes triggered by drug-related environmental cues," says lead researcher Stephen Dewey.

The scientists demonstrated that environmental triggers¿say, returning to a place where drugs were once consumed¿cause measurable increases in dopamine in addicts. (In fact, alcohol, cocaine, nicotine, methamphetamine and the like bring about similar increases in this neurotransmitter, particularly in parts of the brain associated with reward and reinforcement.) In rats trained to expect cocaine in a particular setting, dopamine levels shot up 25 percent when they entered that setting¿regardless of whether they received the drug or not. But when the scientists gave the animals GVG before entering the drug environment, dopamine levels remained normal. "No other drug has been tested as extensively for substance abuse treatment as GVG," Dewey says, "and no other drug has been tested for substance abuse treatment using these simultaneous biochemical and behavioral tests

It’s Time to Stand Up for Science

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.

I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.

If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.

In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.

There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.

Thank you,

David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific American