Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jun 2001
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Thomas H. Maugh II, Times medical writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

SINGLE COCAINE HIGH OPENS ADDICTION WINDOW

A single exposure to cocaine triggers a weeklong surge of activity in a 
brain region central to the development of addiction, according to a UC San 
Francisco study of mice in Thursday's Nature. The first drug exposure 
throws open a window of vulnerability that may make the brain acutely 
responsive to subsequent exposures for a week to 10 days--in effect, 
priming the brain for addiction. The exposure doubles the responsiveness of 
dopamine neurons, which play a key role in the drug high and subsequent 
craving, according to Dr. Antonello Bonci and his colleagues.
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