The National Institute on Drug Abuse is announcing a scientific first – a vaccine for treating addiction. A study published in the current issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry shows that vaccination with an experimental anti-cocaine vaccine resulted in a 38% reduction in cocaine use among study patients with a history of drug abuse. Similar to vaccines against infectious diseases, the anti-cocaine vaccine stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies. However, unlike antibodies against infectious diseases which destroy or deactivate disease-causing agents, anti-cocaine antibodies bind to cocaine molecules in the blood, rendering them incapable of passing through the blood-brain barrier, thus inhibiting or blocking cocaine’s effects on the body. [via NIH News]
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Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.