A team of addiction researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) report in Psychopharmacology that oxytocin, a hormone produced naturally in the hypothalamus, has significant gender differences when used as a treatment for cocaine-addicted individuals with a history of childhood trauma. The MUSC team was led by Jane E. Joseph,…
Cocaine contributes to overdose deaths among some minorities
Drug overdose deaths are a major public health concern across all racial/ethnic groups, and are often associated with opioid use. However, a new study shows that cocaine is also a consistent contributor to overdose deaths. The research suggests that rates of cocaine-related overdose deaths in the non-Hispanic black population are…
First large scale study of cocaine users leads to breakthrough in drug testing
Scientists from the University of Surrey have developed a rapid and highly sensitive fingerprint test that can take just seconds to confirm whether someone has used cocaine. This new breakthrough, published in Clinical Chemistry, comes as a result of the first large scale study of cocaine users and could pave the…
Stress flips cocaine relapse to ‘on’; research switches it back to ‘off’
A heartbreaking phenomenon of addiction is that just a brief stressful episode can trigger relapse. In a detailed new cocaine addiction study conducted in rat models, which closely parallel human addictive behavior, scientists have identified what appears to be taking place in the mammalian brain to make that happen and…
Cocaine addiction leads to build-up of iron in brain
Cocaine addiction may affect how the body processes iron, leading to a build-up of the mineral in the brain, according to new research from the University of Cambridge. The study, published today in Translational Psychiatry, raises hopes that there may be a biomarker — a biological measure of addiction —…