Research: Caffeine Counters Cocaine's Effects on Women's Estrus Cycles

21 Nov 2014 --- Women are more sensitive to the effects of cocaine and more susceptible to cocaine abuse than men.

Cocaine's ability to disrupt a woman's estrus cycle may explain the sex differences in cocaine addiction, and new evidence that caffeine may be neuroprotective and able to block cocaine's direct effects on the estrus cycle reveals novel treatment possibilities, according to an article published in Journal of Caffeine Research: The International Multidisciplinary Journal of Caffeine Science, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

In the article "Cocaine Shifts the Estrus Cycle Out of Phase and Caffeine Restores It", Patricia Broderick, PhD and Lauren Malave, City College of New York, City University of New York Graduate Center, City University of New York, and NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, show that cocaine shifts the estrus cycle, thereby changing a woman's estrogen levels. Caffeine can block these changes, suggesting that antagonists of the adenosine system may have a role in treating cocaine addiction.

"This is cutting-edge work that has never been shown before. It is critical knowledge relevant to women's reproductive health," says Patricia A. Broderick, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Caffeine Research and Medical Professor in Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, The Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, The City College of New York, The City University of New York, and Adjunct Professor in Neurology, New York University Langone Medical Center and Comprehensive Epilepsy Center.