Effective Treatments for Cocaine Addiction
By Jill Gonzalez
Cocaine use has steadily been on the rise in the United States in recent years. As a result, addiction treatment centers and substance abuse programs are seeing a growing number of patients seeking help for their cocaine addictions.
Cocaine addiction is a complicated problem because the drug creates biological changes in the brain. Specifically, the dopamine levels in the brain become controlled by cocaine in regular users. Dopamine receptors transmit signals of pain and pleasure, and cocaine blocks them from functioning normally. These receptors are found in the part of the brain that deals with emotional responses and movement. Cocaine actually causes your brain to produce more dopamine, and as a result, every time you use cocaine, your cocaine use is reinforced and you eventually become addicted.
Emotional, social, biological and familial changes are common for addicted individuals, making it extremely difficult to stop using. Luckily, there are a variety of treatment options available to help those who are addicted to cocaine.
Medication for Cocaine Addiction
While there are currently not any mainstream drugs designed specifically to treat people who are addicted to cocaine, research is routinely being performed in an effort to create medications that will help people with this problem. There are some experimental drugs that are being used to treat cocaine addiction, but these come with a certain amount of risk. The majority of them are classified as schedule 4 drugs, which means that they carry a significant risk of addiction.
Common medications that are used to treat cocaine addiction include:
- Baclofen - a muscle relaxant that curbs cocaine cravings and has been shown to reduce the use of the drug in abusers
- Disulfiram - an anti-alcoholic agent that makes using cocaine (or alcohol) very unpleasant
- Gabapentin - an anticonvulsant that makes cocaine cravings easier to deal with; it also helps to lessen the severity of relapses
- Modafinil - effective in reducing cravings for cocaine, as well as reducing the cocaine high
- NAC (or N-Acetylcysteine) - an animo acid that has proven to be effective in reducing the cravings for cocaine; it has also shown promising results in repairing some of the damage done to the brain in animal studies
- Nocaine - this is a drug that provides a weaker version of cocaine to abusers; it works by blocking cocaine’s stimulant effects
- Vigabatrin - an anti-epileptic drug that helps to lessen cocaine cravings
Since there is no single medication that is designed to specifically and safely treat cocaine users, behavioral treatments are often the favored option. Often, a combination of medication and behavioral therapy is used to treat patients. Fortunately, there are a number of options available for addicted individuals, including outpatient and residential addiction treatment programs.
Behavioral Treatments
It is important to note that each patient needs to be treated according to his or her own needs. No two people require the exact same regimen of treatment, so it wouldn’t be fair to compare one person’s treatment needs to another.
Behavioral therapy can include relapse components for patients who are more prone to suffering relapses as well as contingency management, which provides a type of rewards system to keep patients motivated to remain clean.
Another behavioral approach is cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps people who are addicted to cocaine become abstinent. This type of treatment focuses on re-learning certain types of behaviors such as how to avoid, cope with and recognize the various situations in which they are most likely to use cocaine. They also learn about some of their behavior patterns that can be associated with frequent use of drugs.
When patients choose a residential cocaine addiction treatment program, they should plan on staying at a facility for approximately six to 12 months. How long an individual will need to remain in a program will depend on the assessment by the substance abuse treatment facility practitioners.
Most residential substance abuse programs offer patients a combination of individual and group therapy. Participating in both types of counseling can help addicted individuals re-socialize and prepare to re-enter the workforce once their rehabilitation is complete.
Cocaine addiction is a difficult disease to overcome. It affects people not only on a biological level, but also on an emotional, social and environmental level. It is imperative that it be dealt with on an individualized basis, and it must always be supervised by a qualified substance abuse treatment specialist. Trying to quit using cocaine on your own is never a good idea because the risks to your health are simply too great.