Cocaine Addiction News and Research

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Cocaine dependence (or addiction) is physical and psychological dependency on the regular use of cocaine. It can result in severe physiological damage, psychosis, schizophrenia, lethargy, depression, or a potentially fatal overdose.

Scientists identify brain circuit responsible for cocaine-seeking behavior during relapse

Approximately 1.5 million Americans use cocaine in a given year, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Many are repeat users. Unfortunately, there are currently no FDA-approved medicinal treatments for cocaine addiction.

19 Mar 2019

UTSA researchers reveal important insight into cocaine addiction

Researchers at The University of Texas at San Antonio have revealed significant insight into cocaine addiction, a phenomenon which has grown significantly in the United States since 2015.

10 Jan 2019

Cocaine-addicted rats show long-lasting increases in number of orexin neurons

A study in cocaine-addicted rats reports long-lasting increases in the number of neurons that produce orexin—a chemical messenger important for sleep and appetite—that may be at the root of the addiction.

12 Sep 2018

Bile acids reduce desire for cocaine, finds study

Bile acids -- gut compounds that aid in the digestion of dietary fats -- reduce the desire for cocaine, according to a new study by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

31 Aug 2018

A class of proteins shown to be effective in reducing drug-seeking behaviors

A class of proteins that has generated significant interest for its potential to treat diseases, has for the first time, been shown to be effective in reducing relapse, or drug-seeking behaviors, in a preclinical study.

14 Aug 2018

Study: Exercise can help prevent relapses into cocaine addiction

Exercise can help prevent relapses into cocaine addiction, according to new research led by the University at Buffalo's Panayotis (Peter) Thanos, PhD.

9 Aug 2018

Cocaine relapse is reduced in preclinical model with BDNF administration

Cocaine relapse was significantly reduced in a preclinical model when brain-derived neurotropic factor was applied to the nucleus accumbens deep in the brain immediately before cocaine-seeking behavior, report investigators at the Medical University of South Carolina in an article published online in June 2018 by Addiction Biology.

3 Aug 2018

Researchers uncover gene that plays role in cocaine addiction

Cocaine can have a devastating effect on people. It directly stimulates the brain's reward center, and, more importantly, induces long-term changes to the reward circuitry that are responsible for addictive behaviors.

12 Jul 2018

Study highlights complexity of the brain’s molecular response to cocaine use

A study in Biological Psychiatry has identified unique genetic changes in the brain's reward circuitry that are associated with cocaine use, including first-time use, withdrawal, and re-exposure to the drug after prolonged withdrawal.

31 May 2018

Scientists successfully test anti-alcoholism drug in animal models

Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have successfully tested in animals a drug that, they say, may one day help block the withdrawal symptoms and cravings that incessantly coax people with alcoholism to drink.

4 May 2018

University of Pennsylvania expert investigates novel treatment for cocaine addiction

Cocaine and other drugs of abuse hijack the natural reward circuits in the brain. In part, that's why it's so hard to quit using these substances.

28 Apr 2018

Scripps researchers awarded two grants to support studies on cocaine, oxycodone addiction

Last year, more than 60,000 Americans died of an opioid overdose, and millions more struggled with opioid and cocaine addiction.

27 Apr 2018

Scientists reveal development of improved medicine to fight addiction

Drug addiction continues to plague vast numbers of people across the world, destroying and ending lives, while attempts to develop more effective pharmaceutical addiction treatments continue.

21 Feb 2018

UMSOM researchers identify new role for mitochondria in cocaine-induced behavior

For years, scientists have known that mitochondria in brain cells play a role in brain disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety and stress responses.

20 Dec 2017

Advances in genetic and stem cell techniques help identify therapeutic targets for neurological disorders

Research released today highlights advances in the use of CRISPR-Cas9 and human induced pluripotent stem cell technologies to identify novel therapeutic targets for neurological disorders such as schizophrenia and addiction.

13 Nov 2017

Bioengineers develop brain sensor technique to understand cocaine addiction in adolescent mind

Several studies have provided strong evidence that adolescents--people in their teens to early twenties--have a higher vulnerability than adults to addictive substances like cocaine.

1 Nov 2017

APA shines light on important trends in psychology

Psychology is hot, and it's only getting hotter. It's critical to the development of such technological innovations as self-driving cars and smart devices.

23 Oct 2017

UTHealth study focuses on how gene-environment interactions impact cocaine use disorder

Studying the effect of environmental stressors on the development of cocaine use is the focus of a $2.6 million award from the National Institutes of Health to researchers at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

3 Oct 2017

SBP researcher awarded $10.8 million grant to pursue development of new drug for substance abuse

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute is pleased to announce the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health has awarded Nicholas Cosford, Ph.D., a three-year, $10.8 million grant to pursue the preclinical development of a new class of medicine to treat substance use disorders.

26 Sep 2017

BMC researchers studying possibility of weight loss drugs to combat cocaine addiction

Boston Medical Center's psychiatry team is studying a drug called lorcaserin, which targets the brain's serotonin receptors and could help reduce cocaine cravings as well as dampen the rewards associated with taking cocaine.

21 Sep 2017