Should We Embrace Vaccines for Treating Substance- Related Disorder, A Subset of Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS)?

Kenneth Blum, Rajendra D. Badgaiyan, Daniel H. Angres and Mark S. Gold

 

Abstract

Undoubtedly substance-related disorder is a chronically relapsing problem worldwide, the question is; should anti-drug vaccines be embraced for treatment of this enormous problem?. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has approved a number of Medical Assisted Treatments (MAT) for alcohol, opiates and even Nicotine abuse, while, other abusable drugs like cocaine and cannabis have not been addressed [1]. Estimates place lifetime risks of transitioning from drug use to dependence from 8.9% to 67.5% [2]. Certainly there is strong evidence for inheritability of both substance and non-substance related seeking behaviors now under the Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) rubric [3]. In fact using Bayesian theorem modeling, carriers born with a variant in the dopamine D2 receptor gene have a 74% predictive value to abuse drugs, food, and other process addictions close to the above estimate. However, Kendler et al. [4] suggested it to be somewhat lower at 50%. According to Belcher et al. [1] it is noteworthy that a number of studies have shown that striatal D2 receptor availability inversely correlates with measures of impulsive response in both animals and addicted humans [5].

Published on: January 29, 2015
doi: 10.17756/jrds.2015-001
Citation: Blum K, Badgaiyan RD, Angres DH, Gold MS. 2015. Should We Embrace Vaccines for Treating Substance-Related Disorder, A Subset of Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS)? J Reward Defic Syndr Addict Sci 1(1): 3-5.
 
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