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Cocaine Cravings

Scientists have discovered that flashing an image of cocaine in front of a cocaine addict can trigger a craving for the drug. In experiments conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, cocaine users were shown photos of drug-related cues such as crack pipes and blocks of cocaine. They were not shown the images for long - in fact they were flashed in front of them for just 33 milliseconds - so fast that the subjects were not consciously aware of seeing them.

However, using magnetic resonance imaging technology (an MRI scanner for the all you ER fans out there) they were able to pick up on chemical changes in the emotional centre of the addict’s brain. The images, which had flashed by too quickly even to be consciously recognised, stimulated activity in the limbic system. The limbic system is the brain network involved in emotion and reward and had previously been thought to be involved in drug cravings.

“This is the first evidence that cues outside one’s awareness can trigger rapid activation of the circuits driving drug-seeking behaviour,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of America’s National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Patients often can’t pinpoint when or why they start craving drugs. Understanding how the brain initiates that overwhelming desire for drugs is essential to treating addiction.”

The University of Pennsylvania’s research was led by Dr. Anna Rose Childress and Dr. Charles O'Brien, who also found an interesting link between drug cravings and primal desires for things like food or sex. They showed subjects sexual images, and found that the area of the brain which responded to them overlapped with the region responding to the cocaine photos. This supports the idea that addictive drugs take over brain regions normally used for identifying things needed for survival – for example food or sex.

“We have a brain hard-wired to appreciate rewards, and cocaine and other drugs of abuse latch onto this system,” said Childress. “We are looking at the potential for new medications that reduce the brain’s sensitivity to these conditioned drug cues and would give patients a fighting chance to manage their urges.”