Current pharmacotherapies for cocaine abuse: a review

Abstract

This article attempts to summarize the results of clinical trials on various pharmacotherapies for cocaine abuse described in the literature. A wide variety of drugs have been used for cocaine abuse. They include drugs for the treatment of coexisting psychiatric disorders, cocaine antagonists, dopamimetic agents, L-dopa/carbidopa, the amino acids tyrosine and tryptophan, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and antabuse-like drugs. Emphasis is placed throughout this review on how extensively each drug has been tested, how successful each drug has proven to be in treating cocaine abuse, and on which drugs require further investigation.