“Our study will change the way we think about addiction research to emphasize the need to further understand female subjects, as most research on addiction has been conducted in male subjects,” explained co-author of the study, Erin Calipari, PhD. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that the natural hormonal changes a woman goes through make her more susceptible to cocaine addiction than men. This is specifically true when a woman is going through her menstrual cycle.
The estrogen levels in a women’s body cause the brain to increase its dopamine reward system. This means that women get a bigger rush from drugs like cocaine during this time. This discovery has helped scientists understand why women are more likely than men to become addicted to cocaine.
With this kind of information, researchers are now hopeful that better intervention plans can be devised to prevent women from developing strong, and potentially lethal, addictions to cocaine. One possible solution would be to regulate these hormonal shifts with specialized birth control, however there are no plans yet to use this as a treatment for cocaine addiction.
“Our findings underscore the unique insight into normal brain function and disease pathology that results from studying both sexes,” said Dr. Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, the principal author of the study. “This approach is essential to enable the field to develop optimized treatments for drug addiction and other conditions for women as well as men.”