Cocaine

Reports on the work of addiction researchers who are learning how acute and chronic cocaine exposure regulates certain genes, based on knowledge from developmental and cancer biology.

Describes a study showing that cocaine, which increases dopamine levels, also can tap into an intracellular dopamine reserve pool.

Summarizes research on the effects of long-term regular cocaine abuse on the cardiovascular system in African Americans.

Reports on research of chronic cocaine abusers who may feel they are sleeping better during early abstinence revealed that the opposite may be true.

Reports on a study involving researchers who successfully desensitized mice to cocaine by genetically altering their dopamine transporters.

Reports prevalence rates of illicit drug abuse among youths and young adults based on 2007 data from a national survey of drug use and health.

Highlights a computerized intervention that reduced new mothers' drug abuse in the first 4 months postpartum as reported in a clinical trial of 107 women who abused drugs.

Describes research findings showing differences in protein concentrations in the brain pleasure centers of people who died from cocaine overdose as compared with those who did not abuse the drug.

Reports on an animal study showing that methadone, normally used as a therapy for opioid abuse, may prove to be an effective treatment for cocaine abuse.

Discusses research exploring how widespread the reduction of neural activity is in the brain with chronic exposure to cocaine.