A recently published study has uncovered significant reductions in the availability of a specific serotonin receptor in the brain of individuals with cocaine dependence. The reductions suggest that these receptors may play a role in the expression of cocaine dependence and could be a promising target for developing new treatments.
The study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, is the first with human positron emission tomography (PET) data to investigate serotonin dysfunction in cocaine dependence.
David Matuskey, associate research scientist in diagnostic radiology and in psychiatry, is the study’s lead author. Robert Malison, professor of psychiatry and chief of the Cocaine Research Clinic at Yale School of Medicine, is the study’s senior author.
Other Yale authors include Zubin Bhagwagar, Beata Planeta, Brian Pittman, Jean-Dominique Gallezot, Jason Chen, Jane Wanyiri, Soheila Najafzadeh, Jim Ropchan, Paul Geha, Yiyun Huang, Marc N. Potenza, and Richard E. Carson.
Reference: Reductions in Brain 5-HT1B Receptor Availability in Primarily Cocaine-Dependent Humans (doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.11.022)