buprenorphine & naltroxone; a serious hope for pharmacological treatment of stimulant addiction

recent studies on rodents showed successful treatment outcomes for cocaine dependence by using buprenorphine and naltrexone without the risk of dependence on them. such findings could provide a new hope on treatment of cocaine, methamphetamine or other stimulants dependence. the idea of using these medicines was formed once dr. nora volkow (director of nation institute for drug abuse) based on her observations in treatment of heroin dependent patients mentioned to dr. george koob that i witnessed in my clinical trials that when buprenorphine is used, cocaine use is also clearly reduced. but buprenorphine is an opioid, and may be associated with risk of dependence and abuse and this could lead to even more problems in cocaine dependent patients with no history of opioid abuse. on this basis, the idea of using an opioid antagonist concurrently was created to suppress some narcotic effects of buprenorphine and naltrexone was studied on this purpose and further details in this regard will be discussed in this article.