summary: Cocaine use and related fatalities are on the rise in the United States. Researchers aim to understand and counteract this trend through studies centered on the theory of reinforcer pathology.
In this study, rewarding participants for achieving treatment goals effectively reduces the drug’s value compared to immediate rewards. The study hopes to guide the development of innovative interventions to reduce cocaine use and ultimately improve public health.
Important facts:
- Cocaine use in the United States is on the rise, and nearly one in five overdose deaths are linked to cocaine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- VTC’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute conducts research based on the theory of enhanced pathology, which rewards individuals for achieving treatment goals to mitigate the immediate value of drug use.
- This study aims to guide innovative interventions that may reduce cocaine consumption and have a positive impact on public health.
sauce: Virginia Tech
Nearly 2 percent of the U.S. population reported using cocaine in 2020, and the highly addictive substance was responsible for nearly one in five overdose deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Virginia has seen an increase in cocaine-related overdoses since 2013, with 968 fatal overdoses in 2022, 20% more than in 2021, according to preliminary data from the Virginia Department of Health. It has increased.
Of those, four out of five contain fentanyl, which is a driving force in fatalities, whether prescription, illicit or analog.
Researchers at VTC’s Flaryn Biomedical Institute are working to better understand cocaine use disorders and reverse national trends.
“Stimulants are making a comeback. Cocaine use and addiction have been on the rise for over a decade, and there is no strong cure,” said Warren, professor at VTC’s Furlin Institute for Biomedical Research and director of the Center for Addiction Recovery Research. Bickel said.
“I need new ideas.”
This study emphasizes the theory of reinforcer pathology, which states that people place high value on immediate rewards (e.g., how a substance makes them feel) and low value on future benefits. .
In this study, researchers will use cocaine emergency management by offering cash or something of value to people who have met their treatment goals.
“We know that when people use drugs, they give up their jobs, relationships, families, and even lives, but when they receive a few bucks as a drug-free urine sample, they become powerful. “What explains it? Their time horizon. If you give them a clean urine sample, they’ll pay you back. Drugs lose their value,” Bickel said.
The Addiction Recovery Research Center is recruiting adults who use cocaine for a paid research study on decision making. Participants will be asked to make 13 visits to the Roanoke lab over a five-week period to undergo an MRI, report cocaine use, undergo a computerized evaluation, and provide urine samples.
The research, although not treatment research, was supported by a grant of over $700,000 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health.
“We are inviting people to join us for several weeks in a row to learn if addressing their short-term vision could be an additional key to treating them,” Bickel said. .
“There is value in exploring new ideas. New interventions have long been awaited, but there is growing evidence that this effort is an idea whose time has come. It will produce the effects we want to measure. I have.”
Bickel is also Director of the Institute’s Health Behavioral Research Center, Professor of Psychology in the Virginia Tech School of Science, and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Virginia Tech Carillion School of Medicine.
He is also working with co-investigator Steven M. Laconte, an associate professor at the Frallin Institute for Biomedical Research.
Laconte says it’s important to work with colleagues working on substance use disorders and use brain imaging to study the effects of cocaine use and changes to the brain during interventions.
“Thank you to all the participants who took the time to come.” [institute] for our research,” he said.
“We are grateful to the state and federal agencies that not only fund the science we are doing here, but also work to reduce the stigma surrounding addiction.”
Their goal is to lead to innovative interventions that help reduce cocaine consumption and have a positive impact on public health.
About this Addiction Research News
author: Lee Ann Kelly
sauce: Virginia Tech
contact: Lee Ann Kelly – Virginia Tech
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
