A mouse study conducted by the team of Ian Maze, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, found that chronic cocaine addiction prevented a specific enzyme to carry out its work of elimination of some genes in the brain’s pleasure circuits.

This effect was eager than rodents more drugs.

The research helps explain how cocaine use changes the brain, said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study published in the journal Science.

“This discovery is enabling a new understanding of how the repeated use of drugs in the long term modifies the function of neurons,” Volkow said in a telephone interview.

For the study, the researchers administered to a group of young mice repeated doses of cocaine and other, repeated doses of saline and then single cocaine.

The authors found that one way that cocaine alters the brain’s reward circuitry is through repression 9A gene, which produces an enzyme that plays a key role in gene activation and deactivation.

Other studies have found that animals exposed to cocaine for a period of time are subject to drastic changes in how genes are turned on and off, and develop a strong preference for cocaine.

This work helps explain how this happens, Volkow said, and even lead to new ways of overcoming addiction.

In the study, Maze and his colleagues showed that these effects could be reversed by increasing the activity of the gene 9A.

“When that is done, completely reversed the effects of chronic use of cocaine,” he added.

Maze noted that this mechanism will not only reduce dependence on cocaine and could lead to a new area of research in addictions to other drugs, alcohol and even nicotine.

The fundamental characteristics of drug addiction treatment, consist of a series of consultations and medical interventions for the patient. In these sessions, medical, which can be given in different ways, seeks to support the addict in order to rehabilitate.

They are different techniques and forms of rehabilitation, adapting to the emergency department patient dependency, the risk of it and the properties of substances consumed. In turn, there are also differences according to the forms that can be used, according to the characteristics of each individual. There are treatments that, in most cases are characterized by individual.

The most important in a rehabilitation process is awareness on the part of the addict’s problem we have. If this step is taken, it is very important to the containment and support that family and friends can give. Well, the next step is the instance where you must deal with withdrawal syndrome.

Different types of treatment

The most important thing about the treatment of addictions, is that it is a process where the results become apparent if you have patience and perseverance in the presence of medical meetings. There are ways in which treatment plan is designed according to the individual. However, in the case of alcoholism in particular, presents the possibility of the group sessions, such as, for example associations of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Equally, in addiction to drugs and alcohol, it presents the possibility of individual process. In general terms, treatments consist of patterns of action, beyond the forms or techniques used.
These patterns are of a psychosocial, psychological, pharmacological and self-help. After the early stages, where it passes through withdrawal from drugs or alcohol, therapies are essential to control and no patient relapsed.

What is it?

Although often thought of addiction as a matter of will and were blamed for those affected only have to leave, the truth is that this is a disease, which comes in part motivated which often is accompanied by strong support from those around the addict.

And besides we are talking about the drug has produced biochemical changes in the brain of the patient and therefore effects are felt not only psychological but also physical (beyond the control of the patient), especially during the withdrawal syndrome that is the most feared, but for which there are options for treatment to help send.

Recovery Process

What is important to know from the start is that addiction to cocaine has no cure and that this involves a processing fee that ranges from react features

- The diagnostic, which takes into account the biological, psychological and social problems surrounding the issue, this part is crucial to distinguish this from other associated problems such as addictions to other substances such as alcohol and so on.

After that what we usually do is:

- Detoxify the body of the substance (for which it is sometimes necessary hospitalization). When this has been achieved, we must be clear what this means brain damage have no chemicals necessary for normal operation, especially dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the nervous system responsible for functions such as behavior, cognition, motor activity, motivation and reward, attention, learning, sleep or mood … because it has been replaced by cocaine, and to suppress the body that is produced is the syndrome abstinence: are conditions that present with symptoms often opposite to the effects of cocaine: depression, insomnia or hypersomnia, fatigue, irritability, agitation and psychiatric disorders.

At this point, some of the therapies are limited to control these symptoms of withdrawal, but what really matters is:

- Reset the brain damage that have occurred, especially in serotonergic and dopaminergic systems, this has been called neuroadaptation: This process is achieved through advanced drug treatment for which acts on brain receptors and systems and structures like the ventral tegental area (VTA), the core acumbbens and prefrontal cortex are also associated with withdrawal.

This will prevent the onset of withdrawal symptoms, thereby achieving one hand to control the intense desire to consume and yet cocaine are restored restoring parts of the brain affected cognitive and affective processes, recuperate calmness, attention span, among other issues essential to restore the lost equilibrium.

This should be subeditor under a team of professionals who make it possible to recover both physically and psychologically, combining drug treatments and cognitive-behavioral therapy, individually and collectively.