A recent study launched by the Brookhaven National Laboratory, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy is considered the first organization to effectively demonstrate the link between function and structure in the healthy brain. For those who have developed an addiction to cocaine, the structure and function are both impaired.

According to co-lead author on the study, Muhammad Parvaz, this research for the first time documents the importance of the brain’s structural integrity in terms of reward processing. This processing takes place in the prefrontal cortex and the gray matter contributes to executive function of a higher order, such as decision-making and self-control.

Parvaz noted that while studies have been done in the past at Brookhaven and other locations, the research conducted focused on exploring the prefrontal cortex to understand structural integrity when drug addiction is present, as well as the functional components involved with reward processing. Such studies, however, were always conducted separately. The purpose of this study was to identify whether or not the specific reward processing function could be mapped onto the underlying structure of the brain and study the relationship between the two.

To explore the relationship, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was conducted through brain scans in both healthy individuals and cocaine users. The scan collected structural measurements on the brain on a whole to analyze voxel-by-voxel for detailed measurements within specific regions of the brain.

For healthy individuals, scientists found an increasingly powerful relationship between increasing reward and the volume of gray matter within the prefrontal cortex. Individuals with a cocaine addiction did not fare as well. The amount of gray matter measured in these individuals was reduced and no differences could be detected between reward conditions when measuring brain activity.

Now, a research team from the University of Vermont has found that caffeine use through the drinking of high-calorie energy drinks or soda may also predict a person’s reaction to exposure to cocaine.

The study, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence was led by Stacey Sigmon, Ph.D. Sigmon is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont’s College of Medicine, whose work has focused on the effect of caffeine, including withdrawal and the relationship between such stimulants and cigarette smoking.

The team found that in their placebo-controlled, double-blind trial that a subject’s reaction to a dose of caffeine may offer a prediction of how they will react to a stimulant drug such as cocaine, which may give information about their risk of abusing that drug. Sigmon explains that there is a wide range in individuals’ response to a drug, with an individual dose resulting in effects that repulse one person and provide a pleasant experience for another.

Those types of different effects may help in understanding who might be at risk for a possible drug problem. In order to test the effects, Sigmon and Roland Griffiths, Ph.D, coauthor, from Johns Hopkins University looked at how subjects with a variation of responses to caffeine react to doses of d-amphetamine, which is classified as a psychomotor stimulant. The effects of d-amphetamine are similar to those found in other stimulants like cocaine.

The researchers found that when given a choice between caffeine and a placebo, those who picked caffeine reported a significantly higher level of positive subjective effects and fewer unpleasant effects in response to d-amphetamine. Those who chose the non-caffeine placebo reported the opposite effects in response to d-amphetamine.

Sigmon and Griffiths report that their research is unique in showing that caffeine consumption reinforcement can predict the subjective reaction to the use of another stimulant drug. Sigmon says that though the results do not translate to every coffee drinker being at a elevated risk for cocaine addiction, it does indicate that individuals have a specific reaction to stimulants and their reaction to one type may predict how they will respond to another stimulant.

The study, in which research included 22 individuals, was conducted over a period of approximately three months and was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Lead author Kerry Kerstetter of the University of California, Santa Barbara, said that previous studies in humans have found that women enter treatment for addiction faster than men and report shorter periods of abstinence from cocaine.

Because male and female rats also present differences when it comes to their responses to cocaine, the researchers figured they would also present differences when given a choice between food and cocaine.

The researchers trained the rats to press one lever for food and another for cocaine, and then were offered a choice between the two. They found that females chose cocaine much more often than the male rats, which mostly chose the food.

When higher doses of cocaine were offered, both the males and females chose cocaine more often, but the females chose the drug more often than the males. Kerstetter said it appeared that the females were more likely to forgo food in favor of low doses of cocaine.

Source: Science Daily, Sweets or Cocaine? Male Rats Prefer Sweets, Female Rats Favor Cocaine, November 15, 2010

Researchers from the Scripps Research Institute wanted to see whether dysregulation of the function of mGluRs plays a role in increasing cocaine administration in rats. They tested rats with daily one-hour or six-hour access to cocaine for differences in cocaine use after being treated with LY379268, an mGluR2/3 agonist, and MTEP, an mGluR5 antagonist.

During the development of the rats’ addiction, LY379268 and MTEP changed in capacity to reduce cocaine use. LY379268 became more effective and MTEP became less effective in rats that had six-hour access to cocaine.

Corresponding author Dr. Yue Hao explains that their study shows that during the transition from “casual” cocaine use to addiction, dysregulation occurs in mGluR function, suggesting that functional changes in mGlu receptions may play a role in cocaine addiction.

Dr. John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry, the journal in which the study was published, said the study underscores the complexity of treating cocaine addiction because different extents of cocaine use may affect brain systems differently. These findings could lead to effective treatments for different kinds of cocaine use.

Source: Science Daily, Drugs to Treat Cocaine Abuse? Effectiveness May Depend on How One Uses Cocaine, August 10, 2010

The BBC reports that cocaine swab kits have previously been used at venues in the town to detect if patrons have been using drugs.

Strathclyde Police will be issuing the torches to club and pub stewards and some of its officers as part of Renfrewshire’s festive safety campaign, which is run with the local council and businesses.

Sgt. Greg Dinnie, who is a violence reduction coordinator with the force, said: "Over the past couple of years the police have introduced a new tactic of using specially-designed swabs to detect the presence of cocaine within licensed premises. This has frequently identified suspected illegal drug abuse within toilet and wash room areas.”

"The introduction of a number of cocaine torches will provide licensed stewards, operating at the busier entertainment establishments, and police officers, with the ability to identify persons entering these premises who have been recently abusing controlled drugs,” he continued.

Sgt Dinnie said the torches were "intended as a non-intrusive preventative tool".

If anyone tests positive, officers will have the power to search them. Stewards will also be able to refuse entry.

Science Daily reports that the findings were presented at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

"Our finding suggests a promising therapeutic strategy for cocaine addiction, for which there is no approved treatment," said lead author Khaled Moussawi of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

Cocaine is a highly addictive drug characterized by frequent cravings for the drug, which lead to relapses. Recent advances in brain imaging are helping scientists uncover what happens in the brain when an addicted person is exposed to the drug-associated "cues" that trigger craving and lead to relapse. They’ve found that repeated exposure to psychoactive drugs such as cocaine causes an imbalance in the brain circuits regulating reward and cognitive control.

One of these circuits is a pathway involving the neurotransmitter glutamate. In the current study, Moussawi and his colleagues found that NAC restored normal functioning to this circuit in rats that had been previously addicted to cocaine. In addition, after receiving NAC, the previously cocaine-addicted rats did not reengage in drug-seeking behavior, even in the presence of drug-associated cues.

"Clinical trials involving people addicted to cocaine and nicotine have already suggested that N-acetylcysteine may be useful in decreasing cravings for those drugs," said Moussawi. "Our research adds support to that suggestion." A phase III clinical trial using NAC to treat cocaine addiction is currently underway.

Research was supported by the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

Sometime during the course of your life, you’ve probably heard the catchphrase “crack is whack.” Although it may produce a few chuckles, crack cocaine is no laughing matter. According to a recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), approximately 2.1 million Americans are current cocaine users. Of these, approximately 610,000 are crack users. These statistics are cause for alarm, and something must be done to combat this growing epidemic.

Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. Cocaine comes from the leaves of the coca plant found in South America. Although the narcotic was the drug of choice in the eighties and nineties, it is not a newly developed drug. In fact, cocaine is one of the oldest known psychoactive substances—indigenous South Americans have been ingesting coca leaves for more than a thousand years.

Crack cocaine is a solid, smokeable derivative of cocaine that can be made by mixing powdered cocaine with baking soda or sodium hydroxide and heating it. Named for the crackling sound the drug makes when it’s being manufactured, crack became popular in the mid-to-late eighties, particularly in low-income populations because of its inexpensive cost. Crack, also known as “rock,” is thought to be the most addictive form of cocaine and one of the most addictive narcotics known today. Users of crack promote the euphoria experienced once they take the drug—a feeling that only lasts between 5-10 minutes—but what they should be concerned with are the drug’s side effects.

Crack users experience a wide range of side effects including a loss of taste or smell, increased blood pressure and heart rate, anxiety, convulsions, and nausea. Once the high is over, users often become depressed and irritable and seek out the drug for another quick fix. Because of the fast-acting nature of the drug and how quickly it is absorbed into the blood stream, overdoses and cardiac arrest are quite common. Hospitals throughout the United States have recently reported an increase in crack-related emergency room visits.

Even though crack cocaine is highly addictive, treatment is available and rehab programs are often successful. The intense physical and psychological addiction to crack is very hard for most people to resist on their own, so medical treatment is required for those individuals seeking help. Inpatient therapy is the best treatment option for anyone who needs to break out of the crack cocaine addiction cycle.

By administering injections of cocaine to a group of monkeys (who share many similar genes to that of humans) and comparing their brain functions to a control group of monkeys who did not receive drugs, scientists were able to see that several biochemical changes occurred in the monkeys who received the drugs. Simply put, the monkeys who received the cocaine injections soon developed a biological dependence on the addiction, which has given scientists and doctors new information in the battle against addiction.

According to one scientist who participated in the study, the cocaine changed the structure of neurons and protein activity, which explains why many addicts find it so hard to continue in their quest to quit drugs after a relapse. It’s an important step in realizing the kind of obstacles addicts have to overcome in the fight against addiction, and why relapse is not only likely – it should be expected. Since the experiment has shown that the brain is essentially programmed and conditioned to need the cocaine after only a few injections, it should provide doctors, therapists and society in general with a better understanding of what an addict must go through in order to win the battle against addiction.

Additionally, as many medications are developed based on the understanding of how the human brain functions, this new information is vital for research scientists and pharmaceuticals looking to develop highly effective medication to treat addictive disorders. Since popular misconceptions about addiction have indicated that abnormal brain activity leads to addiction, it’s important to realize that, very often, it’s addiction that leads to abnormal brain functions – thus, addiction should be looked at in a very new light!

This study not only has an impact on developing medicine for addicts, but it will certainly help drug education to further deter individuals from even picking up the habit in the first place. Since abusing drugs has very real long-term consequences, it’s important for drug educators to stress that quitting cold turkey will be very nearly impossible, as addiction biologically programs the brain to crave the desired drug. Thus, an addict can never “stop” whenever he or she feels like, as research has shown that relapse is practically inevitable.

This kind of research also helps to promote the theory that addiction should be treated as a disease instead of just a psychological disorder. Since debate is still raging about whether or not addiction is a disease, this study provides further evidence that addiction is founded in abnormal biochemical compositions; thus, it should be treated by doctors and scientists as a highly debilitating disease.