Health

Anti-drug vaccines don't work (yet)

by generaldecay | October 10, 2009 at 10:48 am

77 views | 24 Recommendations | 4 comments

A study reported this week in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that an experimental "cocaine vaccine" was mostly ineffective at reducing consumption of the drug.

I'm not entirely surprised by this finding. Scientists have, for years now, been trying to find a drug that will vaccinate against using, erm, drugs. Ok, irony aside, this isn't such a crazy idea. Although it doesn't work just now, at least in terms of cocaine use.

Less than two-fifths of the subjects injected with the vaccine, which is supposed to stimulate production of antibodies that bind to cocaine molecules and prevent them from reaching the brain, had enough of an immune system response to significantly reduce their cocaine use (as measured by urine tests). Even among those subjects, only half cut back on cocaine by 50 percent or more.

As is always the case with these things, more work is required.

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Amy Judd

at 15:48 on October 10th, 2009

Yes, more work is required

generaldecay

at 23:35 on October 10th, 2009

Thanks for the recommendation and comment Amy. :)

Wellescent Health (not verified)

at 20:24 on October 10th, 2009

The unfortunate problem is that unless the underlying cause of addiction in the patients is cured, any success in the field of illicit drug vaccines will still be fleeting as those with addiction problems will simply seek out new means to achieve the high that makes them feel good or allows them to cope.