N-acetylcysteine as an adjuvant in the management of cocaine and tobacco craving. Narrative review
Abstract
By 2021, it is estimated that 36.3 million people will develop substance use disorders worldwide. In Colombia, tobacco and cocaine are two of the most widely used legal and illegal substances. The craving, or desire to consume or use, is a characteristic associated with substance use disorders, which in turn is one of the reasons that explain relapses and abandonment of therapeutic processes.
A potential therapeutic strategy for its treatment is the use of N-acetylcysteine, which has been implicated in the regulation of the levels of the neurotransmitter’s cysteine and glutamate. This narrative review was aimed to outline the pharmacological mechanisms of N-acetylcysteine and review the current evidence on its usefulness in cocaine and tobacco craving. A structured search of the literature was carried out, obtaining 12 articles between the period 2015-2021, most of them with methodological limitations. Recent evidence maintains that there may be biological plausibility for the use of N-acetylcysteine as an adjuvant in the management of craving, but there is still a lack of robust information for its widespread use or to generate recommendations.
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Toxicology, DependencyReferences
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