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Summary: Those with cocaine use disorder who were administered ketamine for depression or pain experienced a two-to-four times higher remission rate.
Source: Case Western Reserve
As cocaine use continues to climb across the United States, scientists have struggled to develop an effective pharmacological approach to treat the devastating disorder.
But by seamlessly combining artificial intelligence (AI), human intelligence, clinical testing and computer analysis, researchers at Case Western Reserve University have unearthed an existing option that appears to hold promise.
“Ketamine, a small synthetic organic molecule used clinically as an anesthetic and a depression treatment, was found to be associated with significant improvement in remission among people with cocaine-use disorders,” said the study’s corresponding author Rong Xu, professor of biomedical informatics and founding director of the Center for AI in Drug Discovery at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.
“This study is a great example of addressing an intractable problem by the creative use of AI using different sources of data,” said study co-author Pamela Davis, the Arline and Curtis Garvin Research Professor at the School of Medicine. “It is our hope that this approach will suggest therapeutic approaches for other difficult problems.”
