A Step Closer to Substance abuse and Phobia Treatment

Scientists are now looking into solving drug abuse cases by studying on the certain medication that could possibly be the most effective medication for treating addiction. This unique drug is also known to manage phobias. The US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Lab provides further proof that a drug known as D- cycloserine could play a role in assisting to extinguish the craving behaviors associated with drug abuse, or particularly, with the addiction to psychotropic medicines. Their study discovered that mice treated with D-cycloserine were less likely to spend time in an environment where they had previously been trained to expect cocaine than mice treated with a placebo.

A graduate student from Stony Brook College working under Brookhaven Laboratory, Carlos Bermeo said that since the association between drugs and the places where they are utilised can trigger wanting and/or relapse in humans, a medication that could assisted in the reduction or even annihilation of such responses might be a powerful tool within the treatment of addiction.

The D-cycloserine was originally created as an antibiotic. But this drug has additionally shown to extinguish trained fear in pre-clinical (animal) studies, and has been successfully tested within human clinical trials for the treatment of acrophobia or fear of heights. This finding led the researchers to wonder whether D-cycloserine could extinguish drug seeking behaviors as well. Last 2006, several scientists not linked to the Brookhaven Lab tested this hypothesis in rats. They found out that D-cycloserine facilitated the annihilation of "cocaine conditioned place reference"-- in which the tendency for the animals to spend additional time in a chamber exactly where they had been trained to expect cocaine than in a chamber exactly where they had no access to the drug in any way. This study builds on the prior work and adds information on the medication dose effect, the actual lasting properties of the treatment, and the locomotor results of this compound.

Within the study, the group worked with C57bL/c mice. The animals were very first trained to receive drug in a specific environment. Once conditioned, place preference was established (animals willingly spent more time in a cocaine-paired atmosphere than in a neutral environment), the mice were treated with either D-cycloserine or saline and had been allowed to spend forty minutes in either the previously cocaine-paired environment in which the drug was no longer available, or the natural environment. According to one of their researchers, this particular paradigm would be analogous to a clinical approach in which the addict is came back to their natural environment where drug use ended, but this time without any drug available. He added that reduced seeking of the medication in the same environment-that may be the extinction behavior-is a great sign of future achievement in treatment and reduced chance of relapse.

However, these researchers said that it is important to the reason is that are very preliminary is a result of a small animal study, and much further study will be required prior to testing this medication in humans. Nonetheless, it is inspiring to know that this drug might show promise in treating cocaine addiction that continues to take a toll on society as well as for which no pharmacological treatment currently is available. Such research studies would take us one step closer in treating phobias, as well as drug abuse.

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