COCAINE AND BUPRENORPHINE

A NIDA-supported study has found evidence that combining disulfiram, a medication long used to treat alcohol addiction, with buprenorphine, can reduce cocaine abuse among the more than 50 percent of heroin-addicted individuals also addicted to cocaine. In the study, patients addicted to both opiates and cocaine who were treated with a combination of disulfiram and buprenorphine achieved 3 weeks of cocaine abstinence faster and stayed abstinent longer than those who received only buprenorphine.

"This study provides evidence that this well-established treatment for alcoholism, disulfiram, works with the newest opiate treatment medication, buprenorphine, to reduce cocaine abuse in opiate addicts," says Dr. Tony George of Yale University Medical School. " If additional research confirms our results, disulfiram may be a useful adjunct to buprenorphine for physicians to use with patients who also abuse cocaine," he says.

Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse