A DRUG that might block cravings for drugs is being tested in recovering addicts after successful animal trials, Peter Kalivas of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston told a meeting of the Australian Neuroscience Society in Melbourne last month.
Most work on addiction focuses on the “pleasure centre” in the brain. This is what gets people hooked on drugs, but brain imaging suggests a pathway running from the frontal cortex to the pleasure centre triggers the cravings. “By targeting the craving pathway you have a chance of selectively blocking that incredible desire that addicts have for the drug,” says Kalivas.…
