Medical researchers led by Stephen Dewey at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and Dr. Jonathan Brodie of New York University School of Medicine recruited parolees who were cocaine dependent, each using an average of two grams of cocaine daily for nine years.
While half the participants in the study received a placebo powder mixed into their juice each day, half got a powder containing vigabatrin. After three months, 14 of the 50 study participants who got vigabatrin each day were able to abstain from cocaine use during the final three weeks of the study, compared with only 4 of the 53 who received the placebo.
The scientists said use of cocaine was detected by twice-weekly urine tests. Those who got the vigabatrin were also far more likely to report abstinence from alcohol, the researchers reported.
"In animal models, vigabatrin works to reduce the use of virtually every addictive substance," said Dewey.
"If this can do for humans what it did for animals, we may have opened the door for addicts around the world to kick their habit."
The findings appear in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
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