Abstract
Substance use disorders (SUD) are inheritable and the culprit is hypodopaminergic function regulated by reward genes. We evaluated a natural dopaminergic agonist; KB220 intravenous (IV) and oral variants, to improve dopaminergic function in SUD. Our pilot experiment found a significant reduction of chronic symptoms, measured by the Chronic Abstinence Symptom Severity (CASS) Scale. The combined group (IV and oral) did significantly better than the oral-only group over the first week and 30-day follow-up period. Next, the combination was given to129 subjects and three factors; Emotion, Somatic, and Impaired Cognition, with eigenvalues greater than one were extracted for baseline CASS-Revised (CASS-R) variables. Paired sample t-tests for pre and post-treatment scales showed significant declines (p = .00001) from pre- to post-treatment: t = 19.1 for Emotion, t = 16.1 for Somatic, and t = 14.9 for Impaired Cognition. In a two-year follow-up of 23 subjects who underwent KB220IV therapy (at least five IV treatments over seven days) plus orals for 30+ days: 21 (91%) were sober at six months, 19 (82%) having no relapse; 19 (82%) were sober at one year, 18 (78%) having no relapse; and 21 (91%) were sober two-years post-treatment, 16 (70%) having no relapse. We await additional research and advise caution in interpreting these encouraging results.
Acknowledgments
We thank the staff of Bridging the Gaps of Winchester, VA, the staff of AminoStream, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana, and the staff of PATH Foundation, NY. The writing of this article was funded in part by LifeGen, Inc., San Diego, CA. We also thank James Braly, M.D. for patients’ assessments. Other support came from NIAAA grants R01-AA07112 and K05-AA00219 and the Medical Research Service of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (to MO-B). The patented NAAT IV therapy has been exclusively licensed to AminoStream and as such the following authors’ disclose financial interest: DM, MM, MM, DM, SS, SS, BWD, AB, MAM, RLW, JG, and KB. All other authors declare that they have no competing interest.