Spring 1996 Volume 5, Number 2
Useful new addiction treatment
The two major drugs of abuse in our society --opioids
(heroin) and cocaine --exert their addictive properties through two different
neurotransmitter systems in the brain. Therefore, it has been assumed that
pharmacologic treatments for cocaine or heroin abuse would have to be
different, even though the concurrent abuse of both drugs is very common.
Now a medication originally developed as a pain reliever has shown great
promise for the treatment of "polydrug" abuse involving both cocaine and
opioids. This drug, called buprenorphine, is unusual in that it both activates
and inactivates the molecules (called receptors) where opiates attach on the
nerve cells in the brain. Thus, like most opioids, it effectively relieves
pain but the risk for overdose is minimal.
The Granger Collection, New York.
Clinical studies found buprenorphine to be effective as a treatment for heroin
addiction and to have some advantages over methadone in terms of relative
safety. However, a surprise was that buprenorphine was also found to reduce
cocaine abuse in individuals who are dependent on both heroin and cocaine.
Finding these dual effects by buprenorphine provides new insights into the
mechanisms of cocaine and heroin dependence and suggests that these mechanisms
may be more related than was previously thought.
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