Development on a possible cure for a methamphetamine (tik) addiction has been fast tracked by the Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) of the USA. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers administered the trial of the drug known as Ibudilast or MN-166 to 11 non-treatment seeking meth addicts.

The trial tests the safety of the drug when taken while still using methamphetamine. According to researchers the trial appeared to be successful, easing the level of addiction. Dr Aimee Swanson, research director at the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine said:

Very preliminary results would indicate that Ibudilast may dampen craving and improve cognitive functioning.

For over 20 years researchers have attempted to develop medicine of this nature, with 439 000 meth users in the United States in 2011. The epidemic cost the country a reported $23,4 billion (R216 billion) in 2005.

As of now, the only treatment options for meth adddicts are counseling are environmental change and emotional counseling.

Swanson said:

When we see people come to participate in the trial, it’s really their last resort. Many of them can no longer hold down a job, they have strained relationships with family members. Gone went the cars, gone went the business, gone went the house, gone went the kids. The main focus of this person’s life is using meth.

It seems cruel and unusual to just leave them hanging.

Ibudilast may prevent the activation of certain cells in the central nervous system – glial cells. These cells have been linked to a dependency on drugs. According to Sawnson:

When you’re on meth, your whole brain is saying, ‘I need meth.’ If you could block meth from interfering with glial, it would allow the messages that you would like to be sending and receiving to actually get to your brain.

You could say, ‘You know, rather than calling my dealer right now, I’m going to say no.

11 meth using volunteers were housed in a hospital and not permitted to leave the hospital for three weeks. The volunteers were injected intravenously with meth two to three times a week while being treated with Ibudilast. That was the first phase of the trial, and researchers were satisfied with the results and will move onto the second phase, which will be funded by the federal government research institute the National Insitute on Drug Abuse.

Ibudilast was developed in Japan in 1989 and was commonly used to treat asthma and post-stroke complications. In 2004 a San Diego biopharmaceutical company, MedicNove licensed the drug to potentially treat multiple sclerosis.

The second phase of the trial will be a 12 week treatment program with 140 treatment-seeking human meth addicts. Half of the volunteers will take a placebo drug and the other half will take Ibudilast twice a day. The volunteers will visit the trial unit three times a week for drug-craving monitoring, urine drug screens and medication adherence monitoring. Researchers hope this phase will produce increased sobriety levels and decreased levels of cravings.

It remains to be seen if the results of these trials hold up in larger studies, according to Dr David Sack, psychiatrist and CEO of Promises addiction treatment centers. This is important because it is in larger studies that the effectiveness is tested. Sack added:

Nevertheless the importance of this finding cannot be overstated. There are no effective treatments for amphetamine dependence despite more than a generation of research.

The results of the second phase are expected to be released in early 2015. If the results are successfull, phase three would go ahead with a larger study and possible FDA approval by 2018.

[Source: Huffington Post]