Vaccines for cocaine addiction: Where we’re going and why doctors should pay attention

Abstract

Pharmaceutical options for stimulant and cocaine use disorders are profoundly lacking. To date, trials of numerous drug classes, including antidepressants, antipsychotics, psychostimulants, anticonvulsants and dopamine agonists, have been unsuccessful. However, research in this area is rapidly evolving, and yields interesting and varied results. The current article gives an overview of one of the latest pharmacotherapy modalities for cocaine use disorder: the cocaine vaccine.