Vaccines Help Kick Drug Habits

A pair of new vaccines designed to combat cocaine and methamphetamine dependencies not only relieve addiction but also minimize withdrawal symptoms, according to study results presented by Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) researchers at the Annual Meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in Quebec City, Canada.

The vaccines stimulate the body to produce antibodies which then attack the drug while it is in the blood stream. This prevents the drug from reaching the brain and creating the reactions that contribute to dependency.

“These are therapeutic, not preventative, vaccines,” says lead investigator Thomas Kosten, Jay H. Waggoner Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry at BCM and research director of the Veteran Affairs national Substance Use Disorders Quality Enhancement Research Initiative. “They are meant for those who are already suffering from drug addiction.”

Kosten stresses that while the vaccines have been shown to help overcome drug addictions, they do not necessarily curb relapse.

“This is not a stand-alone treatment,” Kosten says. “There is a reason drugs were used in the first place, and that needs to be dealt with either through counseling or behavioral therapies.”
TA-CD, the cocaine vaccine, works through a series of injections over a three-month period. Study participants began to respond favorably to the vaccine after about a month. TA-CD has one more large scale human study scheduled before it is ready for the FDA approval process.

“The vaccine slowly decreases the amount of cocaine that reaches the brain,” Kosten says. “It’s a slow process, and patients do not go through any significant withdrawal symptoms.”

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