Cocaine Vaccine

Studies testing effectiveness of cocaine vaccine.

The Washington Post (1/5, Saslow) reports on TA-CD, a possible "vaccine against cocaine addiction: a series of shots that changes the body's chemistry so that the drug can't enter the brain and provide a high." Although a study in the Oct. issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry indicated that the vaccine showed "promise," researchers said it "could also be dangerous; some of the addicts participating in a study of the vaccine started doing massive amounts of cocaine in hopes of overcoming its effects," and "immunization did not achieve complete abstinence from cocaine use." Meanwhile, another study published in the Oct. issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry found that the TA-CD vaccine "surprised" researchers "by how effective the medication was in blocking cocaine's effects."