Thursday, October 08, 2009

Cocaine addiction vaccine shows early promise

A widely reported experimental vaccine used to counteract coke addiction showed strong results - at least initially. But, as the medical news syndicate HealthDay now reports, it lost its effectiveness after a few months.

Thirty-eight percent of the study’s participants developed enough antibodies to curb their cocaine use. But after two months, the effects tapered off, reports Healthday.

The study’s findings are published in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, which also reports that cocaine addiction affects 2.5 million people nationally, only 809,000 of whom are being treated.