Drug addiction is one of the
worst nightmares of modern society. The process of rehabilitation
is a long and hard one and many drug addicts eventually return
to the drug, but a new Israeli product may give them new hope
of recovery.
Researchers, lead by Dr. Gal
Yadid from the department of Neuropharmacology in Bar Ilan University,
made an important discovery that might help rehabilitate drug
addicts in a way not possible until today. Until now, the only
way to rehabilitate a drug addict was by replacing one addiction
with another. Addicts received a substitute called Methadone that
is taken orally once a day and replaces drugs such as heroin,
morphine, and other opioids. Methadone works by occupying opioid
receptors in the brain, thus reducing the cravings associated
with heroin use and blocks the high from heroin. Ultimately, the
patient remains physically dependent on the opioid, but is freed
from the uncontrolled, compulsive, and disruptive behavior seen
in heroin addicts. Withdrawal from Methadone is much slower than
that from heroin and many patients require continuous treatment,
sometimes over a period of years.
Gal Yadid's idea works very
differently than Methadone. While Methadone deprives the body
of the pleasure associated with drug use, the new substance used
by Yadid actually encourages pleasure. This new substance helps
the body develop a kind of an "immune system" thus becoming
resistant to the drug and preventing many of the Methadone related
cases where drug addicts simply returned to the drug after a while.
This new substance is a steroid
called DHEA and is produced naturally by the brain in small quantities.
DHEA is also being given as a food supplement in the United States
but in Yadid's research it was injected into the brain to achieve
the desired effect.
The results of tests done
in laboratory conditions were encouraging and recently a team
of researchers started clinical tests in a rehabilitation center
in central Israel. If this experiment produces similar results,
the new treatment will mark a new era in the war against drugs.
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