editorial comment does that mean that these rats are high all the time? If so, paraphernalia would like to get some of this stuff too....

By Sophie Scott

Rats have been successfully cured of cocaine addictions without any withdrawal symptoms through a treatment Melbourne scientists hope will work in humans.

Cocaine boosts the levels of dopamines or feel-good hormones, in the brain. When the drug is used repeatedly, the brain stops producing dopamine by itself.

Professor Malcolm Horne says any attempt to stop using cocaine then causes severe withdrawal symptoms.

"The brain is looking for more and more to bring it up to normal levels.. that causes drug-seeking behaviour," the neurologist said.

Scientists at the Howard Florey Institute have given rats a drug that tricks the brain into thinking there is a shortage of dopamine.

The drug prompts the brain cells to produce more dopamine.

As a result, the rats did not want any more cocaine.

"When we stopped giving them to cocaine they didn't seek it out, even six months later... so it was a long-term cure," Professor Horne said.

The drug the scientists used is commonly used to treat psychiatric problems.

Researchers say curing the physical drug addiction is only one part of the puzzle - about 60 per cent of people who are addicted to illegal drugs have underlying psychiatric problems.

"At the end of a period of addiction to a drug, those psychiatric difficulties are not going to go away they are still present," psychologist Dr Judi Homewood said.

"That's an important factor for relapse."

The scientists hope the mechanism they have discovered can now be used to help people addicted to drugs such as cocaine and heroic.

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