Spain to test vaccine to treat cocaine addiction

news.yahoo.com — Researchers in Spain, which has the highest rate of cocaine use in the European Union, will test a vaccine next year that they hope will help addicts break free of their addiction to the drug, health officials said Thursday. The vaccine will be tested on 164 people at a dozen hospitals during the first half of next year, Carmen Moya Garcia, an epidemiologist who heads the health ministry's National Plan on Drugs, told a news conference. It does not eliminate the craving for cocaine but will stop addicts experiencing a high when they take it. The vaccine causes protein molecule to be attached to cocaine molecules, which stimulates the body's immune system to produce antibodies that recognize the drug and prevent it from reaching the brain, said psychiatrist Carlos Alvarz Vara.

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