HUMAN TESTING EXPECTED ON ANTI-ADDICTION DRUG GVG

NEW YORK - If it works on humans as well as it did on animals, a drug used
in Europe to treat epilepsy could be a powerful weapon against addiction,
including cocaine and nicotine, scientists said Wednesday.

Scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory hope to begin human
testing this fall on gamma vinyl-GABA, or GVG, which appears to curb
cocaine craving in rats and monkeys.

"You would no longer crave cocaine, because the pleasure would be gone,"
said Stephen Dewey, who led the research at the U.S. Department of Energy's
facility on Long Island.

He worked with other scientists for a dozen years on research, also funded
by the National Institue of Mental Health. The results were released
Wednesday by the journal Synapse and presented at a news conference at the
New York Academy of Science.

Researchers first became interested in GVG because it reduces the level of
a brain chemical called dopamine, believed to trigger the "high" feelings
from drugs.

Cocaine elevates the concentration of dopamine, the brain's "feel good"
chemical at the heart of drug addiction. But lab rats trained to press a
bar that delivered cocaine stopped doing so after being given GVG, Dewey
said.

"The animals pushed the bar once, pushed it again, and then they stopped,"
he said. The drug "takes away reward effect."

Before human testing begins, GVG, now being used in Europe and Canada to
treat epilepsy, must be approved by the federal Food and Drug
Administration for use in the United States.

FDA spokeswoman Ivy Kupec said Vigabatrin, the brand name for GVG, has not
been approved for use in the United States by the Maryland-based agency.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)