Penn Medicine – 1 Avril 2014
Commonly Used Neurological Medication Proves Successful at Blocking Brain’s Reward System Triggers
PHILADELPHIA — Relapse is the most painful and expensive feature of drug addiction—even after addicted individuals have been drug-free for months or years, the likelihood of sliding back into the habit remains high. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that 40 to 60 percent of addicted individuals will relapse, and in some studies the rates are as high as 80 percent at six months after treatment. Though some relapse triggers can be consciously avoided, such as people, places and things related to drug use, other subconscious triggers related to the brain’s reward system may be impossible to avoid— they can gain entry to the unconscious brain, setting the stage for relapse.
Researchers at Penn Medicine’s Center for Studies of Addiction have now found that the drug baclofen, commonly used to prevent spasms in patients with spinal cord injuries and neurological disorders, can help block the impact of the brain’s response to “unconscious” drug triggers well before conscious craving occurs. They suggest that this mechanism has the potential to prevent cocaine relapse. The new findings are reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.
“The study was inspired by patients who had experienced moments of ‘volcanic craving’, being suddenly overcome by the extreme desire for cocaine, but without a trigger that they could put their finger on,” says senior author Anna Rose Childress, PhD, research professor of Psychiatry, director of the Brain-Behavioral Vulnerabilities Division in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Childress and colleagues previously found that subliminal drug “reminder cues” (the sights, sounds, smells, and memories of the drug) could activate the brain’s reward circuit. “Now, we wanted to understand whether a medication could inhibit these early brain responses,” said Childress.
Penn Medicine Points to New Ways to Prevent Relapse in Cocaine-Addicted Patients