Amantadine treatment for cocaine-dependent patients with severe withdrawal symptoms

Abstract

Despite a tremendous research effort, there are no medications currently approved for the treatment of cocaine dependence. Cocaine-dependent patients vary widely in clinical characteristics and response to treatment. This heterogeneity may partially account for the inability to find an effective medication. The identification of specific traits that predict response to particular therapies would be extremely useful in the search for a medication. Cocaine withdrawal symptom severity may predict response to medications that relieve cocaine withdrawal symptoms, such as amantadine. This paper describes a method of measuring cocaine withdrawal symptom severity and presents preliminary evidence demonstrating that amantadine may assist patients with more severe cocaine withdrawal symptoms achieve abstinence from cocaine.

• amantadine
• cocaine
• dopamine
• drug dependence
• drug withdrawal syndrome