Animal research suggests new strategy for treating cocaine addiction

Access to cocaine was then removed and the monkey was treated intravenously with an amphetamine 24 hours per day. When re-exposed to cocaine one week later, a dramatic decrease in responding for cocaine was observed. They tested three different doses of amphetamine and found that a moderate dose was most effective. Although the treatment also decreased lever-pressing for food—which could be predictive of side effects in humans -- this effect disappeared within one week while the effect on responding for cocaine injections persisted for up to one month.

“This was a very positive finding – exactly what we had hoped to see,” said Czoty. “Cocaine use was significantly reduced – by about 60 percent.”

The researchers are currently repeating the study in additional animals. They hope it could eventually lead to identifying a slightly different drug that will obtain the same results as amphetamines.

Czoty said the study is significant because it and other similar studies in monkeys duplicate what has been found in small studies in humans, which suggests that the animal model can be used to test other treatments. The researchers, for example, plan to test topiramate (Topamax®), an anti-convulsant drug that is sometimes used to treat epilepsy and may be effective in treating alcoholism.

“We have found a model we can use to test new drugs and have an idea of what positive or negative effects would look like,” said Czoty.

The research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and was part of Wake Forest’s Center for the Neurobiological Investigation of Drug Abuse. Co-researchers were graduate student Jenn Martelle, and Professor Mike Nader, Ph.D., both in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.

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Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (www.wfubmc.edu) is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Brenner Children’s Hospital, Wake Forest University Physicians, and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine and Piedmont Triad Research Park. The system comprises 1,154 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and has been ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report since 1993. Wake Forest Baptist is ranked 32nd in the nation by America’s Top Doctors for the number of its doctors considered best by their peers. The institution ranks in the top third in funding by the National Institutes of Health and fourth in the Southeast in revenues from its licensed intellectual property.