Psychopharmacology for Cocaine Dependence - Buspirone
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Chronic cocaine use may produce disruption of neurotransmitter functions (including
dopamine). This may in turn contribute to measurable dysfunction in important cognitive and
behavioral processes. Stimulants that enhance dopamine (DA) function may help in treating
cocaine dependence and improving behavioral function -- supporting the notion that these
processes are related. An important step is to understand the subjective, physiological, and
behavioral effects of potential medications for cocaine dependence.
DA-modulating drugs may be targets for pharmacotherapy for substance dependence, and
particularly for stimulant drugs like cocaine, which disrupt normal DA function. Buspirone is
currently the only available dopamine subtype 3 (DA3) approved for human administration, and
is thus a viable investigational compound.
This project proposes to evaluate the DA-modulating effects of buspirone on behavioral
deficiencies related to DA depletion. Accordingly, the project aims to characterize the
effects of buspirone in individuals with cocaine dependence. Employing a daily dosing designs
within an acute stimulant challenge (methylphenidate), the experiment will characterize the
subjective effects, cardiovascular effects, and behavioral effects (attentional bias to drug
cues and risky decision making). The primary hypotheses are that buspirone will attenuate the
increases in subjective drug effects ("stimulated", "like drug") and behavioral effects
(increases in attentional bias and risky decision making) that are produced by acute
methylphenidate administration.
Phase:
Phase 2
Details
Lead Sponsor:
The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston