Scientists Design New Drug To Cut Cocaine and Nicotine Cravings
07/22/99
French scientists have designed a new drug that reduces cocaine cravings in rats and which may also help to stop former drug addicts and cigarette smokers from relapsing.
The drug, BP 897, works on the same brain receptor as dopamine, the chemical associated with pleasure and drug addiction, Pierre Sokoloff and his colleagues at the INSERM national research institute in Paris said Wednesday.
The drug decreased cocaine cravings caused by light stimuli that the rats had learned to associate with the drug, in much the same way as reformed addicts can get a craving when they see drug paraphernalia.
Cigarettes
