Researchers are hopeful about developing an effective vaccine against cocaine, after a recent study showed tentatively positive results.The aim of the research is to develop a vaccine which would prevent cocaine users from getting high when they imbibe the drug, thus helping to break the cycle of dependence by reducing the reward factor for the user.
A team from the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, lead by Thomas Kosten, M.D. used a cholera toxin combined with cocaine molecules in the vaccine they recently tested on human patients. The objective of the vaccine is to encourage the human body to develop antibodies which latch onto cocaine molecules and prevent them from passing through the blood-brain barrier, and hence preventing the user from getting high.
Their recent human-based, placebo-controlled, double-blind study used a sample of 94 cocaine-using participants of a methadone treatment program. The participants were also opiate-abusers (hence their participation in the methadone program). Urine samples were collected from the subjects three times per week to monitor levels of cocaine consumption. One group were given a high dose of the vaccine, another a low dose, and the control group were given no dose.
38% of those in the high-dose group no longer experienced a cocaine high and 53% of those in the high-dose group abstained from cocaine use for more than half of the trial period. The low-dose group fared less well, with 25% staying away from coke for more than half of the trial.
Whilst far from a runaway success, the results seem to show that a vaccine may be effective in some cases. Even in their current form, this vaccine may prove to a very useful compliment to traditional abstinence-based treatment programs. The authors of the study are keen to point out that animal studies involving more advanced vaccines donated from pharmaceutical firms have proved significantly more effective, suggesting that more research could lead to better results in humans.
The complete study is available here at the Archives of General Psychiatry (subscription required).
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