Since then, some scientists have tried to develop a medication that would cure cocaine addiction by blocking dopamine . The latest study is another that casts doubt on that approach. The researchers attached electrodes to the brains of rats, which produced dopamine when they were shocked. The rats were then trained to shock themselves. Grace said that even if dopamine is not the ultimate reward for the brain, it might still be the key to curing addiction.
Some researchers now complain that dopamine 's activity in the brain has been overstated.
Marc Caron, a professor of cell biology at the Duke University Medical Center, found evidence last year that the effects of cocaine are not solely controlled by dopamine . Caron created specially bred mice without dopamine transporters, and found they still wanted cocaine. Medications that block the transporters in humans, however, might be effective if they could block the desire for cocaine long enough to break the addiction, Grace said. Com Marijuana News Send a Virtual Hit Search Marijuana. Com Marijuana Myths Esposed Marijuana.