WTF! DID YOU KNOW THEY HAD A COCAINE VACCINE?

Battling cocaine addiction turns out to be tougher than researchers first thought.
A widely reported experimental vaccine used to counteract coke addiction showed strong results - at least initially. But, as the medical news syndicate HealthDay now reports, it lost its effectiveness after a few months.

The vaccine works by increasing antibodies that bind to the drug, halting the high. Researchers tested the vaccine on 94 adults, selected from methadone maintenance programs. The subjects also recieved behavioral therapy.

Thirty-eight percent of the study’s participants developed enough antibodies to curb their cocaine use. But after two months, the effects tapered off, reports Healthday.

"The results are promising, to be sure, but still the majority of participants did not respond," Jeffrey T. Parsons, professor and chair of psychology at Hunter College, told HealthDay.

The study’s findings are published in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, which also reports that cocaine addiction affects 2.5 million people nationally, only 809,000 of whom are being treated.