|
|
|
Bad News for Dub-Yuh
|
Business New Haven
10/4/1999
By:
|
| A Yale research team has found that repeated use of cocaine causes changes in the brain that persist long after the drug is no longer used. The findings, published in the September 16 issue of Nature magazine, were based on a three-year study which found that long-term use of cocaine triggers the production of a new gene that acts as a sustained molecular switch to increase sensitivity to cocaine. "There have been no adequately effective treatments for cocaine addiction because we know very little about changes in the brain that are responsible for addiction," says Eric Nestler, a Yale professor of psychiatry and neurobiology. "Our new findings help us understand addiction, so that eventually we can better treat it." Nestler adds that earlier studies have shown that chronic exposure to other commonly abused drugs such as amphetamines, morphine, nicotine and PCP produce similar neurobiological changes.
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
