ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2017
N-Acetylcysteine reduces cocaine-cue attentional bias and differentially alters cocaine self-administration based on dosing order.
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04964843 (A Pilot Study of N-acetylcysteine for Alcohol Use Disorder), which is not on this map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
A Pilot Study of N-acetylcysteine for Alcohol Use Disorder
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Patient-Tailored Evidence-Based Approach for Developing Early Neuropsychological Training Programs in Addiction Settings.Neuropsychology review · 2019Pooled it
- N-acetylcysteine reduces cocaine-seeking behavior and anterior cingulate glutamate/glutamine levels among cocaine-dependent individuals.Addiction biology · 2021Trial
- Influence of n-acetylcysteine maintenance on the pharmacodynamic effects of oral ethanol.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2020Trial
- A single extinction-based treatment with N-Acetylcysteine produces long-term reduction in cocaine relapse.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Similarities and Differences in Neurobiology.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- Article
- Suvorexant maintenance enhances the reinforcing but not subjective and physiological effects of intravenous cocaine in humans.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2022Article
- Astrocytes: the neglected stars in the central nervous system and drug addiction.Medical review (2021) · 2022Review
- A Brief Introduction to Human Behavioral Pharmacology: Methods, Design Considerations and Ethics.Perspectives on behavior science · 2022Article
- Cocaine Use Disorder (CUD): Current Clinical Perspectives.Substance abuse and rehabilitation · 2022Review
- The Persistent Challenge of Developing Addiction Pharmacotherapies.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2021Article
- N-acetylcysteine in substance use disorder: a lesson from preclinical and clinical research.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2021Review
- Review
- N-acetylcysteine yields sex-specific efficacy for cue-induced reinstatement of nicotine seeking.Addiction biology · 2020Article
- Effects of chronic cocaine self-administration and N-acetylcysteine on learning, cognitive flexibility, and reinstatement in nonhuman primates.Psychopharmacology · 2019Article
- N-acetyl cysteine in the treatment of alcohol use disorder in patients with liver disease: Rationale for further research.Expert opinion on investigational drugs · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDisrupted glutamate homeostasis is thought to contribute to cocaine-use disorder, in particular, by enhancing the incentive salience of cocaine stimuli. n-Acetylcysteine might be useful in cocaine-use disorder by normalizing glutamate function. In prior studies, n-acetylcysteine blocked the reinstatement of cocaine seeking in laboratory animals and reduced the salience of cocaine stimuli and delayed relapse in humans.
methodsThe present study determined the ability of maintenance on n-acetylcysteine (0 or 2400mg/day, counterbalanced) to reduce the incentive salience of cocaine stimuli, as measured by an attentional bias task, and attenuate intranasal cocaine self-administration (0, 30, and 60mg). Fourteen individuals (N=14) who met criteria for cocaine abuse or dependence completed this within-subjects, double-blind, crossover-design study.
resultsCocaine-cue attentional bias was greatest following administration of 0mg cocaine during placebo maintenance, and was attenuated by n-acetylcysteine. Cocaine maintained responding during placebo and n-acetylcysteine maintenance, but the reinforcing effects of cocaine were significantly attenuated across both maintenance conditions in participants maintained on n-acetylcysteine first compared to participants maintained on placebo first.
conclusionsThese results collectively suggest that a reduction in the incentive salience of cocaine-related stimuli during n-acetylcysteine maintenance may be accompanied by reductions in cocaine self-administration. These results are in agreement with, and link, prior preclinical and clinical trial results suggesting that n-acetylcysteine might be useful for preventing cocaine relapse by attenuating the incentive salience of cocaine cues.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.