Flooding Brain With ‘Pleasure Chemical’ Receptors Works On Cocaine, As On Alcohol

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown that increasing the brain level of receptors for dopamine, a pleasure-related chemical, can reduce use of cocaine by 75 percent in rats trained to self-administer it. Earlier research by this team had similar findings for alcohol intake. Treatments that increase levels of these chemicals - dopamine D2 receptors — may prove useful in treating addiction, according to the authors.

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Filed under: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs on April 17th, 2008