Addiction has always been a very complicated illness, and treating addiction requires a combination of complex treatments. Despite these efforts, many patients will still relapse and give into their addiction after being ‘clean’ for a significant amount of time. Whether an addiction is to nicotine, alcohol, gambling or drugs, it takes control over a person’s life at a harmful rate.
Recent studies have been developing a vaccination to help cure drug addiction – without the risk of patients relapsing as it blocks the drug reaching their brain and effectively ‘numbs’ the effects of it.
Naltrexone
Naltrexone is a medication currently used in the US primarily to treat alcohol or opioid dependency. The drug has been proved successful in reducing opioid addiction, however it comes with a long list of side effects that are not too dissimilar to that of withdrawal – headaches, nausea, trouble sleeping, severe stomach cramps and anxiety. Naltrexone also cannot be taken by patients until they have been detoxified otherwise the side effects are worsened and the desired effect of reducing the effects of opioids can take weeks to kick in. On top of this, the drug must often be taken daily, and orally, by patients and skipping one daily dose can allow an addict to feel the effects of opioids again.
As of now, naltrexone would appear to be one of the most effective medical treatments in place to treat opioid addiction – which is an epidemic sweeping across the country with over 100 deaths a day due to opioid abuse.
A New Vaccine?
The medication in place to prevent the mental effects of drugs reaching the brain are only useful when treating patients with opioid dependencies. However, new vaccinations could prevent brain receptors from being able to detect opioids other addictive and psychoactive substances such as: nicotine, cocaine and methamphetamine.
In layman’s terms, these vaccinations will prevent the addictive molecules in substances from reaching the brain so people will not get any relief from taking the drugs. In turn this will make the consumption of these drugs futile and so addicts will no longer feel the necessity to take them. Ron Crystal, a researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College who helped develop a vaccine against the effects of cocaine that will be undergoing clinical trials soon, described the process as cells producing enough antibodies to the drug that they act like ‘Pac-Men’ preventing any drugs from reaching your brain.
Another vaccine currently in development is a hybrid preventing HIV and the effects of heroin, as HIV is a huge risk for those injecting heroin with unsterilized needles. This tackles two prevalent problems for heroin users/addicts relieving the strain on health services.
Criticisms of these New Proposals
On the surface of the problem, vaccinations to prevent certain drugs being effective will seemingly prevent patients from relapsing as doing so will have no desired effect. However, this is a naïve stance as it does not take into consideration that addicts could simply switch to new substances that’s effects are not prevented by these vaccinations. Addicts may decide to ‘fill the void’ with alcohol or other substances that they have not been made immune to by a vaccination.
A further complication would also be the danger that natural highs mimicking the effects of opioids/cocaine etc. would be more widely available on the street market for drugs as there would be a greater demand for them. These are even more dangerous to users than their common counterparts as their short-term and long-term effects on the body and mind are unknown, and so it is harder to treat patients who have consumed these ‘legal highs’ in medical emergencies.
In order for these vaccinations to be effective in preventing all drug addiction problems, they must be implemented alongside current rehabilitation methods such as therapy and counseling. A person must be cured of their illness so that they do not want to fall victim to their addiction. If this is the case then the vaccinations in place to prevent relapse will aid the rehabilitation process.
By Cerys May