NORTH CHICAGO, ILL. (September 28, 2005) -- A methamphetamine epidemic rages across the United States with addicts blinded by uncontrollable desires for a drug that eventually thrusts them into a dire and catastrophic existence. Doctors don't have any effective treatments for these addicts, or for any other drug addicts; drug addiction is a disease that remains a medical mystery. A recent study led by Pastor R. Couceyro, PhD, at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and colleagues at Amgen sheds new light on the causes of drug addiction, and opens the possibility for new treatments in the future. These researchers have identified a brain neurotransmitter that is important for the pleasurable, and possibly addictive, effects of stimulant drugs like methamphetamine.

A second, small-scale clinical trial of a proposed addiction treatment originally investigated at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory has produced favorable results in the treatment of long-term addiction to methamphetamine and/or cocaine, with no visual side effects in any of the 30 patients enrolled. This research on vigabatrin (a.k.a. gamma vinyl GABA, or GVG) was conducted in collaboration with doctors from the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine and the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research at a national addiction treatment center in Mexicali, Mexico. The results are published in the February 2005 issue of Synapse, now available online.

International behavioral neuroscience society - ninth annual meeting. - Related Articles
International behavioral neuroscience society - ninth annual meeting.
IDrugs. 2000 Jul;3(7):743-4
Authors: Agmo A
The main thrust of the meeting was, as always, basic research in behavioral neuroscience defined in a broad sense. Learning and memory, feeding and drinking, reward mechanisms, development of the CNS, anxiety and stress were the main topics covered. In a public lecture associated with the meeting, Larry Reid (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA) reviewed the quite compelling evidence in favor of the effectiveness of naltrexone for preventing relapse in former alcoholics. He also presented preclinical data demonstrating the remarkable effects of naltrexone given together with isradipine (Novartis AG) in blocking the rewarding effects of cocaethylene. This combination of drugs could thereby constitute a treatment for alcoholism complicated by cocaine abuse. Of potential therapeutic interest was also the description of the preclinical pharmacology and a phase II trial of a new cholinesterase inhibitor, methanesulfonyl fluoride (University of Texas). The possible physiological functions of sigma opioid receptors and the pharmacological properties of sigma receptor ligands were discussed at one of the symposia. Among the subjects covered were the potential use of sigma1 antagonists in the treatment of cocaine addiction and the efficiency of sigma1 agonists for preventing the decline in cognitive functions associated with old age.