Exploring the potential of D-cycloserine and cannabidiol to enhance cue exposure therapies in substance dependence

上瘾是吸毒和酗酒的主要长期有害影响之一。不幸的是，针对成瘾的心理和药物治疗往往不成功。在成瘾的行为治疗方面取得了一些进展，这可能包括让吸毒者注意到他们使用毒品/酒精的情况，同时防止他们实际吸毒/饮酒。这被称为暴露和反应预防(ERP)疗法。然而，许多完成了这类治疗的人，当他们处于诱惑或药物使用提醒的环境中时，仍然会复发。这是因为影响药物使用的记忆特别强，会自动引发吸毒/酗酒。然而，如果心理治疗与一种改善学习的药物相结合，旧的、吸毒的记忆可能会被重写？更成功。一种名为D-环丝氨酸(DC)的药物已成功地与ERP结合用于治疗焦虑症。另一种药物，大麻二酚(CBD)，当它与一种版本的ERP结合时，已被证明对成瘾动物有效。由于在药物/酒精成瘾和焦虑症的心理过程中有一些相似之处，我们想要调查DC和CBD是否能改善药物/酒精成瘾的心理治疗。如果他们可以，这可能会被证明是治疗这种非常有害的成瘾障碍的重要突破。

Addiction is one of the key long-term harmful effects of drug and alcohol use. Unfortunately, psychological and pharmacological treatments for addiction are often unsuccessful. Some progress has been made in behavioural treatments for addiction which may involve exposing addicts to reminders of their drug / alcohol use, while preventing them from actually taking the drug/drinking. This is called exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. However, many who complete this type of treatment still relapse when they are in environments where temptations or reminders of drug use are present. This happens because memories which influence drug-use are particularly strong and automatically trigger drug taking / drinking. However, it is possible that if psychological treatment is combined with a drug which improves learning, old, drug-taking memories might be ?over-written? more successfully. One drug called D-Cycloserine (DCS) has been successfully used in treating anxiety disorders when combined with ERP. Another drug, cannabidiol (CBD), has proved effective in addicted animals when it is combined with a version of ERP. Since there are some parallels in the psychological processes which occur in drug / alcohol addiction and anxiety disorders, we want to investigate whether DCS and CBD can improve psychological treatment for drug / alcohol addiction. If they can, this may prove to be an important breakthrough in the treatment of the very harmful disorder of addiction.