Cravings are unbearable
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Boothwyn,PA
Posts: 3
Cravings are unbearable
I feel like I cant beat my addiction to cocaine. For the last month and a half id beat my cocaine addiction saturday through thrusday, then friday(payday) after prepairing for it all week id lose the battle. Then after the high id insist i would not do it again next week and that was the last time. No luck. Any tips for me to beat my friday fight?
Also I heard amino acids such as N-ACETYLCYSTEINE (NAC) and GABA help reduce cravings. Any truth? If not, any over the counter stuff to help reduce cravings?
thanks
Also I heard amino acids such as N-ACETYLCYSTEINE (NAC) and GABA help reduce cravings. Any truth? If not, any over the counter stuff to help reduce cravings?
thanks
Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: QVB NYC NY
Posts: 620
have you check direct deposited, and put a limit on your atm card for starters. or just don't cash the check till monday.
try and get to a meeting right after work, do you have a support group to call on? if not get one. have sober people around you. you'll actually be helping them just as much as they are helping you if not more.
try and get to a meeting right after work, do you have a support group to call on? if not get one. have sober people around you. you'll actually be helping them just as much as they are helping you if not more.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: The Field of Dreams
Posts: 7,249
Cocaine, Craving, And Relapse By Terence T. Gorski (5-23-01)
An Article By Terence T. Gorski
This article describes the basics dynamics of cocaine relapse a process that progresses through three stages, setups, trigger events, and a self-reinforcing craving cycle. Guidelines are provided for preventing craving and effectively managing craving if it is activated.
Cocaine, Craving, And Relapse
By Terence T. Gorski
GORSKI-CENAPS Web Publications
(www.tgorski.com; www.cenaps.com; www.relapse.org)
May 23, 2001
Cocaine addicts often relapse because they are overwhelmed by a powerful sense of craving. The physiological craving of cocaine is far more powerful than the physiological craving of alcohol or other drugs. As a result, the issue of craving needs to become a primary concern in relapse prevention therapy with the cocaine addict, especially during the first 90 to 120 days of recovery. To responsibly focus upon the issue of craving requires a comprehensive biopsychosocial model that will help us understand the craving process.
In 1990, I developed a three stage model for managing craving.[1] The three stages of craving are:
Stage 1: Set-up behaviors: Ways of thinking, managing feelings, and behaving that increase the risk of having a relapse
Stage 2: Trigger Events: Events that activate the physiological brain responses associated with craving.
Stage 3: The Craving Cycle: A series of self reinforcing thoughts and behaviors that continue to activate and intensify the craving response.
It is important to note that craving is the last step of a three stage process. It is self-defeating to focus on the end result, craving, without focusing on the factors that cause the craving.
Recovering people unconsciously set themselves to experience cravings. The set-up behaviors lower their resistance to craving. When their resistance is down, they're vulnerable to trigger events that cause the actual feeling of craving to start. Once they feel the urge to use, they start using habitual behaviors that amplify or make the craving worse. This is the craving cycle.
Stage One: Set-Up Behaviors:
Set-up behaviors are a combination of physical, psychological, and social factors that lower resistance to craving.
Physical Set-ups For Craving
There are five common physical set ups for craving.
1. Brain Dysfunction From Cocaine Use: Cocaine damages the brain and leaves recovering addicts physically set up to experience powerful cravings. The result of this physical predisposition to experience craving is if recovering cocaine addicts don't do special things to avoid craving, they will experience craving.
2. Poor Diet: Recovering cocaine addicts are often nutritional disaster areas because they live on junk food and don't know what a healthy meal is. Many have coexisting eating disorders that lead to binging on junk food and/or starving for days at a time to deal with the result of weight gain.
3. Excessive Use Of Caffeine And Nicotine: Both caffeine and nicotine of these are low grade stimulant drugs and increase the likelihood of having cocaine craving.
4. Lack Of Exercise. Aerobic exercise reduces the intensity of craving, especially cocaine craving. Regular aerobic exercise is a protective factor against craving, especially in the first six to nine months of recovery. Not doing aerobic exercise on a regular basis sets the stage for craving.
5. Poor Stress Management: When recovering people don't manage stress appropriately in recovery, they increase their risk of having craving by becoming stress sensitive. Regular stress management activities such as meditation, relaxation exercises, taking regular breaks and rest periods are all protective factors against craving.
Psychological Set-Ups For Craving
There are four major psychological ways that recovering cocaine addicts set themselves up to experience craving.
1. Euphoric Recall: Euphoric recall is a way in which cocaine addicts "romance the high" by remembering and exaggerating the pleasurable experiences of past cocaine use, while blocking out painful and unpleasant aspects of the memory.
2. Awfulizing Abstinence: When addicts awfulize abstinence, they notice all of the negatives and exaggerate them while blocking out all of the positive aspects of recovery. This leads the recovering cocaine addict to feel deprived in recovery and to believe that being sober is not nearly as good as using the drug.
3. Magical Thinking About Use: Magical thinking about use is the belief that using cocaine or other drugs will solve all of their problems. This magical thinking is brought about by the euphoric recall ("Remember how good it was!"), and the awfulizing of sobriety ("Look at how awful it is that I can't use it.").
4. Empowering The Compulsion: They exaggerate the power of the compulsion by telling themselves that they can’t stand not having the drug and telling themselves that there is no way to resist the craving.
5. Denial & Evasion: The final psychological set-up is denial and evasion. Addiction is a disease of denial. This denial does not go away simply because they are not using the drug. Many cocaine addicts deny their need for a recovery program to reduce the likelihood of craving. They also deny that they are setting themselves up to have craving for the drug. Because this denial is an unconscious process, many cocaine addicts believe they are doing the best they can in recovery when, in fact, they are not.
Social Set-Ups For Craving
There are three major social ways that cocaine addicts set themselves up to experience craving.
1. lack of communication: Cocaine addicts stop talking about their experiences in recovery and, as a result, they get into trouble. They replace rigorous honesty with superficial communication. This isolates them and prevents them from doing a sanity check on their recovery experiences.
2. Social Conflict: Out of isolation and a refusal to communicate comes a tendency to get into arguments and disagreements with other people. This social conflict prompts the recovering cocaine addict to avoid sober social situations and isolate themselves from others, spending more time alone.
3. Socializing With Other Drug-Using Friends: Out of loneliness and desire to be with people who understand them, many recovering cocaine addicts decide to associate with people who they used to drink and drug with. This puts them in the proximity of the drug and sets them up to have a craving.
Stage 2: Trigger Events For Cocaine Craving
There are four primary types of triggers that activate immediate craving. These triggers include thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and situations that activate craving.
1. Thought Triggers: Thought triggers arise out of addictive thinking or an addictive mind set that creates thoughts about the role that cocaine plays in a person's life.
2. Feeling Triggers: Feeling triggers come from sensory cues - seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, or smelling something that reminds them of cocaine. It also results from experiencing feelings or emotions that were normally medicated by cocaine use.
3. Behavioral Triggers: The behavioral triggers deal with drug-seeking behaviors and rituals that activate a craving.
4. Situational Triggers: Situational triggers include any stessful relationships or situations that used to be engaged in on a regular basis while using cocaine.
Once these triggers are activated, a powerful cocaine craving emerges.
Stage 3: The Craving Cycle
The third and final stage of craving is the actual craving cycle. This cycle is marked by obsession, compulsion, physical craving, and drug-seeking behavior.
1. Obsession: When the obsession is activated, the person has out-of-control thinking about cocaine use. Intrusive thoughts invade their mind and they can't turn them off. The obsession quickly turns into a compulsion.
2. Compulsion: When compulsion is activated the person begins experiencing an overwhelming urge to use the drug even though they consciously know that it is dangerous to do so.
3. Craving: The obsession and compulsion merge into full blown physical craving. Physical craving is marked by a strong desire to use the drug, rapid heart beat, shortness of breath, perspiration, and at times the actual sense of tasting, smelling, or feeling the cocaine. Physical craving is very powerful.
4. Drug Seeking Behavior: In an effort to manage the obsession, compulsion, and physical craving, many cocaine addicts activate drug-seeking, ritual behavior. They begin to cruse old neighborhoods, talk with old drug using friends, and go to bars and other places where cocaine is used. This exposes the person to more triggers which intensify the craving cycle. Eventually, the person becomes overwhelmed with a compulsion that they cannot control and they return to drug use.
Preventing Cocaine Craving
Cocaine craving can be prevented by following a number of simple guidelines.
1. Recovery Program: Develop a structured recovery program that puts you in continuous daily contact with other recovering people.
2. Know Your Triggers: Identify the things that activate the craving and learn how to cope with those triggers.
3. Know & Avoid And Set-up Behaviors: Know your set-up behaviors and learn how to avoid or cope with those set-up behaviors. If you don't set yourself up for craving, when you do have a craving they will be less severe and last for a shorter length of time.
4. Dismantle Euphoric Recall: Carefully examine past pleasant memories about cocaine use and search for the hidden negatives in the experience. Most people find that they had no purely positive experiences while using cocaine. There were always hidden negatives.
5. Stop Magical Thinking: It is also important to stop magical thinking about future use and to stop awfulizing your current sobriety. This will allow you to deal with the physical set-ups and let you know what to do to stop a craving.
Intervening On An Episode Of Craving
Since craving is a normal and natural symptom of cocaine addiction that follows the addict into recovery, it is important for cocaine addicts to learn how to deal with craving in recovery. This is done by learning and practicing a number of steps.
1. Recognize Craving: Addicts must learn how to recognize a craving while it is happening. Many addicts fail to identify mild cravings as problematic and wait until they are in a full blown, severe craving before taking action.
2. Accept Craving As Normal: Many people experience a craving, panic, and believe there is something wrong with their recovery or that they are condemned to return to cocaine use. This is not true.
3. Go Somewhere Else: The craving was probably activated by an environmental trigger, so get out of the setting you're in and get into an environment that supports sobriety.
4. Talk It Through: If you talk it through, you don't have to act it out. Cocaine addicts need to talk about their cravings as soon as they occur to discharge the urge to use.
5. Aerobic Exercise: This stimulates brain chemistry and reduces the physiology of craving.
6. Eat A Healthy Meal: Eat a healthy meals in order to nourish the brain. Consume some lean fish or meat for protein and eat some whole wheat bread or baked, potatoes or brown rice for complex carbohydrates. It also helps to take some vitamins and amino acids to help stabilize brain chemistry imbalances.
7. Meditation And Relaxation: Cravings are worse when a person is under high stress. The more a person can relax, the lower the intensity of the craving.
8. Distraction: divert attention from the craving by engaging in other activities that productively distract the person from their feelings.
9. Remember Cravings Are Time-limited: The ninth step is to remember that most craving is time limited to two or three hours. If you can use the previous eight steps to get yourself fatigued enough to fall asleep, most people wake up and the craving is gone.
It is possible to understand cocaine craving and to learn how to manage cocaine craving without returning to cocaine use. A model that allows people to identify set-up behaviors, trigger events, and the cycle of cocaine craving itself, and intervening upon this process has proven effective in reducing relapse among cocaine addicts.
References
Gorski, Terence T., Addiction & Recovery Magazine, April 10, 1991
Gorski, Terence T., Managing Cocaine Craving, Hazelden, Center City, June 1990
CENREF: ART006
About the Author
Terence T. Gorski is internationally recognized for his contributions to Relapse Prevention Therapy. The scope of his work, however, extends far beyond this. A skilled cognitive behavioral therapist with extensive training in experiential therapies, Gorski has broad-based experience and expertise in the chemical dependency, behavioral health, and criminal justice fields.
To make his ideas and methods more available, Gorski opened The CENAPS Corporation, a private training and consultation firm of founded in 1982. CENAPS is committed to providing the most advanced training and consultation in the chemical dependency and behavioral health fields.
Gorski has also developed skills training workshops and a series of low-cost book, workbooks, pamphlets, audio and videotapes. He also works with a team of trainers and consultants who can assist individuals and programs to utilize his ideas and methods.
Terry Gorski is available for personal and program consultation, lecturing, and clinical skills training workshops. He also routinely schedules workshops, executive briefings, and personal growth experiences for clinicians, program managers, and policymakers.
Mr. Gorski holds a B.A. degree in psychology and sociology from Northeastern Illinois University and an M.A. degree from Webster's College in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a Senior Certified Addiction Counselor In Illinois. He is a prolific author who has published numerous books, pamphlets and articles. Mr. Gorski routinely makes himself available for interviews, public presentations, and consultant. He has presented lectures and conducted workshops in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
For books, audio, and video tapes written and recommended by Terry Gorski contact: Herald House - Independence Press, P.O. Box 390 Independence, MO 64055. Telephone: 816-521-3015 0r 1-800-767-8181. His publication website is www.relapse.org.
An Article By Terence T. Gorski
This article describes the basics dynamics of cocaine relapse a process that progresses through three stages, setups, trigger events, and a self-reinforcing craving cycle. Guidelines are provided for preventing craving and effectively managing craving if it is activated.
Cocaine, Craving, And Relapse
By Terence T. Gorski
GORSKI-CENAPS Web Publications
(www.tgorski.com; www.cenaps.com; www.relapse.org)
May 23, 2001
Cocaine addicts often relapse because they are overwhelmed by a powerful sense of craving. The physiological craving of cocaine is far more powerful than the physiological craving of alcohol or other drugs. As a result, the issue of craving needs to become a primary concern in relapse prevention therapy with the cocaine addict, especially during the first 90 to 120 days of recovery. To responsibly focus upon the issue of craving requires a comprehensive biopsychosocial model that will help us understand the craving process.
In 1990, I developed a three stage model for managing craving.[1] The three stages of craving are:
Stage 1: Set-up behaviors: Ways of thinking, managing feelings, and behaving that increase the risk of having a relapse
Stage 2: Trigger Events: Events that activate the physiological brain responses associated with craving.
Stage 3: The Craving Cycle: A series of self reinforcing thoughts and behaviors that continue to activate and intensify the craving response.
It is important to note that craving is the last step of a three stage process. It is self-defeating to focus on the end result, craving, without focusing on the factors that cause the craving.
Recovering people unconsciously set themselves to experience cravings. The set-up behaviors lower their resistance to craving. When their resistance is down, they're vulnerable to trigger events that cause the actual feeling of craving to start. Once they feel the urge to use, they start using habitual behaviors that amplify or make the craving worse. This is the craving cycle.
Stage One: Set-Up Behaviors:
Set-up behaviors are a combination of physical, psychological, and social factors that lower resistance to craving.
Physical Set-ups For Craving
There are five common physical set ups for craving.
1. Brain Dysfunction From Cocaine Use: Cocaine damages the brain and leaves recovering addicts physically set up to experience powerful cravings. The result of this physical predisposition to experience craving is if recovering cocaine addicts don't do special things to avoid craving, they will experience craving.
2. Poor Diet: Recovering cocaine addicts are often nutritional disaster areas because they live on junk food and don't know what a healthy meal is. Many have coexisting eating disorders that lead to binging on junk food and/or starving for days at a time to deal with the result of weight gain.
3. Excessive Use Of Caffeine And Nicotine: Both caffeine and nicotine of these are low grade stimulant drugs and increase the likelihood of having cocaine craving.
4. Lack Of Exercise. Aerobic exercise reduces the intensity of craving, especially cocaine craving. Regular aerobic exercise is a protective factor against craving, especially in the first six to nine months of recovery. Not doing aerobic exercise on a regular basis sets the stage for craving.
5. Poor Stress Management: When recovering people don't manage stress appropriately in recovery, they increase their risk of having craving by becoming stress sensitive. Regular stress management activities such as meditation, relaxation exercises, taking regular breaks and rest periods are all protective factors against craving.
Psychological Set-Ups For Craving
There are four major psychological ways that recovering cocaine addicts set themselves up to experience craving.
1. Euphoric Recall: Euphoric recall is a way in which cocaine addicts "romance the high" by remembering and exaggerating the pleasurable experiences of past cocaine use, while blocking out painful and unpleasant aspects of the memory.
2. Awfulizing Abstinence: When addicts awfulize abstinence, they notice all of the negatives and exaggerate them while blocking out all of the positive aspects of recovery. This leads the recovering cocaine addict to feel deprived in recovery and to believe that being sober is not nearly as good as using the drug.
3. Magical Thinking About Use: Magical thinking about use is the belief that using cocaine or other drugs will solve all of their problems. This magical thinking is brought about by the euphoric recall ("Remember how good it was!"), and the awfulizing of sobriety ("Look at how awful it is that I can't use it.").
4. Empowering The Compulsion: They exaggerate the power of the compulsion by telling themselves that they can’t stand not having the drug and telling themselves that there is no way to resist the craving.
5. Denial & Evasion: The final psychological set-up is denial and evasion. Addiction is a disease of denial. This denial does not go away simply because they are not using the drug. Many cocaine addicts deny their need for a recovery program to reduce the likelihood of craving. They also deny that they are setting themselves up to have craving for the drug. Because this denial is an unconscious process, many cocaine addicts believe they are doing the best they can in recovery when, in fact, they are not.
Social Set-Ups For Craving
There are three major social ways that cocaine addicts set themselves up to experience craving.
1. lack of communication: Cocaine addicts stop talking about their experiences in recovery and, as a result, they get into trouble. They replace rigorous honesty with superficial communication. This isolates them and prevents them from doing a sanity check on their recovery experiences.
2. Social Conflict: Out of isolation and a refusal to communicate comes a tendency to get into arguments and disagreements with other people. This social conflict prompts the recovering cocaine addict to avoid sober social situations and isolate themselves from others, spending more time alone.
3. Socializing With Other Drug-Using Friends: Out of loneliness and desire to be with people who understand them, many recovering cocaine addicts decide to associate with people who they used to drink and drug with. This puts them in the proximity of the drug and sets them up to have a craving.
Stage 2: Trigger Events For Cocaine Craving
There are four primary types of triggers that activate immediate craving. These triggers include thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and situations that activate craving.
1. Thought Triggers: Thought triggers arise out of addictive thinking or an addictive mind set that creates thoughts about the role that cocaine plays in a person's life.
2. Feeling Triggers: Feeling triggers come from sensory cues - seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, or smelling something that reminds them of cocaine. It also results from experiencing feelings or emotions that were normally medicated by cocaine use.
3. Behavioral Triggers: The behavioral triggers deal with drug-seeking behaviors and rituals that activate a craving.
4. Situational Triggers: Situational triggers include any stessful relationships or situations that used to be engaged in on a regular basis while using cocaine.
Once these triggers are activated, a powerful cocaine craving emerges.
Stage 3: The Craving Cycle
The third and final stage of craving is the actual craving cycle. This cycle is marked by obsession, compulsion, physical craving, and drug-seeking behavior.
1. Obsession: When the obsession is activated, the person has out-of-control thinking about cocaine use. Intrusive thoughts invade their mind and they can't turn them off. The obsession quickly turns into a compulsion.
2. Compulsion: When compulsion is activated the person begins experiencing an overwhelming urge to use the drug even though they consciously know that it is dangerous to do so.
3. Craving: The obsession and compulsion merge into full blown physical craving. Physical craving is marked by a strong desire to use the drug, rapid heart beat, shortness of breath, perspiration, and at times the actual sense of tasting, smelling, or feeling the cocaine. Physical craving is very powerful.
4. Drug Seeking Behavior: In an effort to manage the obsession, compulsion, and physical craving, many cocaine addicts activate drug-seeking, ritual behavior. They begin to cruse old neighborhoods, talk with old drug using friends, and go to bars and other places where cocaine is used. This exposes the person to more triggers which intensify the craving cycle. Eventually, the person becomes overwhelmed with a compulsion that they cannot control and they return to drug use.
Preventing Cocaine Craving
Cocaine craving can be prevented by following a number of simple guidelines.
1. Recovery Program: Develop a structured recovery program that puts you in continuous daily contact with other recovering people.
2. Know Your Triggers: Identify the things that activate the craving and learn how to cope with those triggers.
3. Know & Avoid And Set-up Behaviors: Know your set-up behaviors and learn how to avoid or cope with those set-up behaviors. If you don't set yourself up for craving, when you do have a craving they will be less severe and last for a shorter length of time.
4. Dismantle Euphoric Recall: Carefully examine past pleasant memories about cocaine use and search for the hidden negatives in the experience. Most people find that they had no purely positive experiences while using cocaine. There were always hidden negatives.
5. Stop Magical Thinking: It is also important to stop magical thinking about future use and to stop awfulizing your current sobriety. This will allow you to deal with the physical set-ups and let you know what to do to stop a craving.
Intervening On An Episode Of Craving
Since craving is a normal and natural symptom of cocaine addiction that follows the addict into recovery, it is important for cocaine addicts to learn how to deal with craving in recovery. This is done by learning and practicing a number of steps.
1. Recognize Craving: Addicts must learn how to recognize a craving while it is happening. Many addicts fail to identify mild cravings as problematic and wait until they are in a full blown, severe craving before taking action.
2. Accept Craving As Normal: Many people experience a craving, panic, and believe there is something wrong with their recovery or that they are condemned to return to cocaine use. This is not true.
3. Go Somewhere Else: The craving was probably activated by an environmental trigger, so get out of the setting you're in and get into an environment that supports sobriety.
4. Talk It Through: If you talk it through, you don't have to act it out. Cocaine addicts need to talk about their cravings as soon as they occur to discharge the urge to use.
5. Aerobic Exercise: This stimulates brain chemistry and reduces the physiology of craving.
6. Eat A Healthy Meal: Eat a healthy meals in order to nourish the brain. Consume some lean fish or meat for protein and eat some whole wheat bread or baked, potatoes or brown rice for complex carbohydrates. It also helps to take some vitamins and amino acids to help stabilize brain chemistry imbalances.
7. Meditation And Relaxation: Cravings are worse when a person is under high stress. The more a person can relax, the lower the intensity of the craving.
8. Distraction: divert attention from the craving by engaging in other activities that productively distract the person from their feelings.
9. Remember Cravings Are Time-limited: The ninth step is to remember that most craving is time limited to two or three hours. If you can use the previous eight steps to get yourself fatigued enough to fall asleep, most people wake up and the craving is gone.
It is possible to understand cocaine craving and to learn how to manage cocaine craving without returning to cocaine use. A model that allows people to identify set-up behaviors, trigger events, and the cycle of cocaine craving itself, and intervening upon this process has proven effective in reducing relapse among cocaine addicts.
References
Gorski, Terence T., Addiction & Recovery Magazine, April 10, 1991
Gorski, Terence T., Managing Cocaine Craving, Hazelden, Center City, June 1990
CENREF: ART006
About the Author
Terence T. Gorski is internationally recognized for his contributions to Relapse Prevention Therapy. The scope of his work, however, extends far beyond this. A skilled cognitive behavioral therapist with extensive training in experiential therapies, Gorski has broad-based experience and expertise in the chemical dependency, behavioral health, and criminal justice fields.
To make his ideas and methods more available, Gorski opened The CENAPS Corporation, a private training and consultation firm of founded in 1982. CENAPS is committed to providing the most advanced training and consultation in the chemical dependency and behavioral health fields.
Gorski has also developed skills training workshops and a series of low-cost book, workbooks, pamphlets, audio and videotapes. He also works with a team of trainers and consultants who can assist individuals and programs to utilize his ideas and methods.
Terry Gorski is available for personal and program consultation, lecturing, and clinical skills training workshops. He also routinely schedules workshops, executive briefings, and personal growth experiences for clinicians, program managers, and policymakers.
Mr. Gorski holds a B.A. degree in psychology and sociology from Northeastern Illinois University and an M.A. degree from Webster's College in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a Senior Certified Addiction Counselor In Illinois. He is a prolific author who has published numerous books, pamphlets and articles. Mr. Gorski routinely makes himself available for interviews, public presentations, and consultant. He has presented lectures and conducted workshops in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
For books, audio, and video tapes written and recommended by Terry Gorski contact: Herald House - Independence Press, P.O. Box 390 Independence, MO 64055. Telephone: 816-521-3015 0r 1-800-767-8181. His publication website is www.relapse.org.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: The Field of Dreams
Posts: 7,249
New Study On
Cocaine Craving & Relapse
(4-15-01)
By Terence T. Gorski
GORSKI-CENAPS Web Publications
(www.tgorski.com; www.relapse.org)
<Date>
Terry Gorski and other members of the GORSKI-CENAPS Team are Available To Train & Consult On Areas Related Craving & Relapse
Gorski - CENAPS, 17900 Dixie Hwy, Homewood, IL 60430, 708-799-5000 www.tgorski.com, www.cenaps.com, www.relapse.org
New Study On Cocaine Craving & Relapse
Abstract
New research conducted by Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York may shed new light on the biology of cocaine craving and the relationship of craving to relapse. There are two brain centers that have been implicated in cocaine craving: the "reward" or "liking" center that registers the high from using the drug -- a brain pathway that involves a chemical called dopamine; and the hippocampus region of the brain, which is associated with memory and involves glutamate, an entirely different brain chemical. This research suggests that craving is is activated by the hippocampus when strong memories of cocaine use are activated. The study suggests that medications affecting the productions of glutamate may be helpful in reducing cocaine craving. Read the details.
New Study On Cocaine Craving & Relapse
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The brain stores the craving for cocaine in a different place than it registers the high caused by the drug, researchers said on Thursday in a finding that points to a promising new approach for treating addicts.
Scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York used rats to study a vexing problem -- how to prevent cocaine addicts who seem to have kicked the habit from relapsing. The findings suggest that a solution may be blocking a brain chemical that largely has been overlooked in addiction research.
"If you listen to patients' stories, one thing that you hear over and over again are the intense cravings that are very, very hard to suppress and that eventually lead to the relapse," Dr. Stanislav Vorel, who led the research, said in an interview.
"So a major question is -- what are these cravings, how are they triggered, how can we prevent them or how can patients learn to cope with them?" he added.
The researchers hooked the rats on cocaine by delivering intravenous doses when the rodents pushed a lever in their cages. The researchers then made the rats quit cold turkey by replacing the cocaine with a saline solution. After a week, the animals stopped pressing the lever seeking a cocaine fix.
The researchers then sought to trigger a relapse by electrically stimulating two parts of the brain.
One was the "reward" or "liking" center that registers the high from using the drug -- a brain pathway that involves a chemical called dopamine.
The other was in the hippocampus region of the brain, which is associated with memory and involves glutamate, an entirely different brain chemical. This region appears to register the memory of a drug's effects and the craving for it, Vorel said.
Stimulating the hippocampus caused an intense craving for cocaine, the study found. The rats repeatedly pressed the lever that previously had delivered cocaine.
The researchers then demonstrated that a chemical that blocks glutamate prevented the relapse even in rats whose hippocampus region had been electrically stimulated.
The study was published in the journal Science.
In separate research that has not yet been published, Vorel said his laboratory found that electrical stimulation of the almond-shaped brain structure related to memory, the amygdala, also caused relapse.
NEW ADDICTION TREATMENT APPROACH
Glutamate is a neurotransmitter involved in essential brain functions such as learning and memory. Vorel said developing a drug targeting glutamate may be able to help a cocaine addict quit the drug for good.
The development of drugs to treat cocaine addiction has consistently focused on dopamine, which is connected to the brain's "liking" region rather than the "wanting" produced by stimulating the memory area, said Vorel.
But Vorel's new research shows that glutamate could be a better target for anti-craving medication, he added.
Vorel said relapse is the single biggest obstacle to successful cocaine addiction treatment.
"I believe that an addicted brain is different than a normal brain, and it becomes for a very, very long time -- if not forever -- sensitive to triggers of relapse," Vorel said.
"Patients will do well for long or short periods of time. But even years after their last cocaine use, they're still vulnerable to relapse."
Terry Gorski and other members of the GORSKI-CENAPS Team are Available To Train & Consult On Areas Related Craving & Relapse
Gorski - CENAPS, 17900 Dixie Hwy, Homewood, IL 60430, 708-799-5000 www.tgorski.com, www.cenaps.com, www.relapse.org
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[email protected]; www.tgorski.com, www.cenaps.com, www.relapse.org
Cocaine Craving & Relapse
(4-15-01)
By Terence T. Gorski
GORSKI-CENAPS Web Publications
(www.tgorski.com; www.relapse.org)
<Date>
Terry Gorski and other members of the GORSKI-CENAPS Team are Available To Train & Consult On Areas Related Craving & Relapse
Gorski - CENAPS, 17900 Dixie Hwy, Homewood, IL 60430, 708-799-5000 www.tgorski.com, www.cenaps.com, www.relapse.org
New Study On Cocaine Craving & Relapse
Abstract
New research conducted by Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York may shed new light on the biology of cocaine craving and the relationship of craving to relapse. There are two brain centers that have been implicated in cocaine craving: the "reward" or "liking" center that registers the high from using the drug -- a brain pathway that involves a chemical called dopamine; and the hippocampus region of the brain, which is associated with memory and involves glutamate, an entirely different brain chemical. This research suggests that craving is is activated by the hippocampus when strong memories of cocaine use are activated. The study suggests that medications affecting the productions of glutamate may be helpful in reducing cocaine craving. Read the details.
New Study On Cocaine Craving & Relapse
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The brain stores the craving for cocaine in a different place than it registers the high caused by the drug, researchers said on Thursday in a finding that points to a promising new approach for treating addicts.
Scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York used rats to study a vexing problem -- how to prevent cocaine addicts who seem to have kicked the habit from relapsing. The findings suggest that a solution may be blocking a brain chemical that largely has been overlooked in addiction research.
"If you listen to patients' stories, one thing that you hear over and over again are the intense cravings that are very, very hard to suppress and that eventually lead to the relapse," Dr. Stanislav Vorel, who led the research, said in an interview.
"So a major question is -- what are these cravings, how are they triggered, how can we prevent them or how can patients learn to cope with them?" he added.
The researchers hooked the rats on cocaine by delivering intravenous doses when the rodents pushed a lever in their cages. The researchers then made the rats quit cold turkey by replacing the cocaine with a saline solution. After a week, the animals stopped pressing the lever seeking a cocaine fix.
The researchers then sought to trigger a relapse by electrically stimulating two parts of the brain.
One was the "reward" or "liking" center that registers the high from using the drug -- a brain pathway that involves a chemical called dopamine.
The other was in the hippocampus region of the brain, which is associated with memory and involves glutamate, an entirely different brain chemical. This region appears to register the memory of a drug's effects and the craving for it, Vorel said.
Stimulating the hippocampus caused an intense craving for cocaine, the study found. The rats repeatedly pressed the lever that previously had delivered cocaine.
The researchers then demonstrated that a chemical that blocks glutamate prevented the relapse even in rats whose hippocampus region had been electrically stimulated.
The study was published in the journal Science.
In separate research that has not yet been published, Vorel said his laboratory found that electrical stimulation of the almond-shaped brain structure related to memory, the amygdala, also caused relapse.
NEW ADDICTION TREATMENT APPROACH
Glutamate is a neurotransmitter involved in essential brain functions such as learning and memory. Vorel said developing a drug targeting glutamate may be able to help a cocaine addict quit the drug for good.
The development of drugs to treat cocaine addiction has consistently focused on dopamine, which is connected to the brain's "liking" region rather than the "wanting" produced by stimulating the memory area, said Vorel.
But Vorel's new research shows that glutamate could be a better target for anti-craving medication, he added.
Vorel said relapse is the single biggest obstacle to successful cocaine addiction treatment.
"I believe that an addicted brain is different than a normal brain, and it becomes for a very, very long time -- if not forever -- sensitive to triggers of relapse," Vorel said.
"Patients will do well for long or short periods of time. But even years after their last cocaine use, they're still vulnerable to relapse."
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Originally Posted by Evolution2319
Also I heard amino acids such as N-ACETYLCYSTEINE (NAC) and GABA help reduce cravings. Any truth? If not, any over the counter stuff to help reduce cravings?
N-ACETYLCYSTEINE (NAC) What it does: an amino acid that curbs cocaine cravings and repairs damage in the brain caused by cocaine use in animals. Human trials will beginin 2004.
How it works: restores glutamate levels to normal in the area of the brain where addiction occurs.
Availability: over the counter.
For specific suggestions of other amino acids that can lessen cravings see nutrition in the Holistic Approaches section of this web site.
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: dayton ohio
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when i was getting off crack/cocaine my doc told me to go on a vitamin c, that it would help cravings, or just go out and get a big bag of candy, it helped me! just keep being strong, if u want to stop bad enough u will!!
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