New Vaccines To Help Kick Cocaine And Meth

Interesting news about vaccines that will help people through the withdrawals. You always have to wonder about who these would be made available to and how much they would cost...

Science Daily — A pair of new vaccines
designed to combat cocaine and methamphetamine dependencies not only relieve
addiction but also minimize withdrawal symptoms, according to study results
presented today by Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) researchers at the Annual
Meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in Quebec City,
Canada.
The vaccines stimulate the body to produce antibodies which then
attack the drug while it is in the blood stream. This prevents the drug from
reaching the brain and creating the reactions that contribute to
dependency.
"These are therapeutic, not preventative, vaccines," said lead
investigator Dr. Thomas Kosten, Jay H. Waggoner Professor of Psychiatry &
Behavioral Sciences at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry at BCM and
research director of the Veteran Affairs national Substance Use Disorders
Quality Enhancement Research Initiative. "They are meant for those who are
already suffering from drug addiction."
Kosten stresses that while the
vaccines have been shown to help overcome drug addictions, they do not
necessarily curb relapse.
"This is not a stand-alone treatment," Kosten said.
"There is a reason drugs were used in the first place, and that needs to be
dealt with either through counseling or behavioral therapies."
Science
Daily