Pubdate: Tue, 11 Jan 2005
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Copyright: 2005 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Author: Stacey Burling, Inquirer Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

DRUG OFFERS COCAINE ADDICTS HOPE

Modafinil Boosts Alertness and May Curb Impulsiveness, a Penn Study Shows.

After decades of failed attempts to find a drug that helps addicts
kick cocaine, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania say they
have finally found a medication that looks promising - a drug
currently approved to treat sleepiness.

Addicts who took modafinil - used to treat narcolepsy and help pilots
and night-shift workers stay alert - were about twice as likely to
avoid cocaine in a given week as those who received a placebo pill,
according to a small Penn study published this month in the Journal of
Neuropsychopharmacology.

Patients taking the medicine, marketed as Provigil, were also nearly
three times as likely as unmedicated counterparts to stay off cocaine
for a three-week stretch - 33 percent vs. 13 percent, said Charles
Dackis, chief of psychiatry at Penn's Medical Center-Presbyterian and
lead investigator of the 62-patient study.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the Penn study and is
paying for three longer, larger studies as well.

The institute is also funding similar studies of three other
medicines: baclofen, which is used to treat spastic disorders;
topiramate, an anti-convulsant; and disulfiram or Antabuse.
Ultimately, the medicines may be targeted at specific subgroups within
the nation's 1.5 million cocaine users, said Frank Vocci, director of
the division of pharmacotherapies and medical consequences of drug
abuse.

Modafinil, he said, has qualities that could "propel it to the top."
Addicts don't mind its side effects and like its "alerting effect." It
may also reduce impulsiveness, a key factor in addiction.

Given the high percentage of addicts in the study who still used
cocaine, the drug clearly is not a cure for cocaine addiction, which
is notoriously difficult to treat. But it may be an important, early
step toward better drug therapies, said Robert Malcolm, a Medical
University of South Carolina psychiatrist who heads another of the
modafinil studies. "Is this drug a home run?" he asked. "No. Maybe
it's a single or at best a double."

Nonetheless, he and Dackis said modafinil is the most promising drug
they have seen for cocaine addiction in 20 years.

Dackis said researchers had tried as many as a 100 drugs against
cocaine during that time with no success.

Modafinil, made by Cephalon Inc. of West Chester, earned $300 million
in 2003 and has projected sales of $410 million for 2004. The company
is awaiting word on its request to market the drug for attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Dackis believes that modafinil helps restore function to the brain's
pleasure center, which is thrown chemically off balance by long-term
cocaine use. Addicts often say they don't "feel right" without
cocaine. "You're craving something that will make you feel better," he
said.

Modafinil, he added, "does promote a sense of well being but not
euphoria and certainly not the rush of euphoria you experience with
cocaine." One of his previous studies showed that the drug blunted the
cocaine euphoria. The government lists modafinil as having mild
potential for abuse. Dackis said he saw no evidence that modafanil is
addictive.

A middle-aged man who participated in the Penn study believes the drug
helped him go 14 weeks without cocaine, an unusually long time for him
during 15 years of addiction.

"I had more energy to stay focused on things I had to do on my job,
things I had to do at home, at church," he said. "I didn't have time
to sneak off into North Philly and get lost."

The man, a professional with a college degree who asked that his name
not be used, said he stopped taking the medicine when the study ended.
He used cocaine again last week. Now, he has asked his primary-care
doctor to prescribe modafinil for him. He also plans to go back into
therapy. "I guess I need that crutch," he said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake