Running Over the Same Old Ground: What�s Missing in Cocaine Clinical Pharmacotherapy Trials?

Running Over the Same Old Ground: What’s Missing in Cocaine Clinical Pharmacotherapy Trials?

In over two decades of cocaine treatment research, countless pharmacotherapies have been tested, without a single medication approved for the treatment of cocaine dependence. A short and entirely incomplete list of tested medications includes: olanzapine, valproate, coenzyme Q10, L-carnitine, cabergoline, reserpine, tiagabine, amantadine, propranolol, selegiline, modafinil, sertraline, disulfiram, baclofen, and citicoline. Setting aside the very real possibility that none of the medications tested to date is actually efficacious for treating cocaine dependence, there are three main issues that appear to have potentially hindered accurate findings in such studies.