Researchers from Wake Forest University's Baptist Medical Center say that long-term cocaine use causes profound changes in the brain, affecting 50 different proteins in the nucleus accumbens, a region of the brain known to be deeply involved in addictions.

The study involved comparisons of brain tissue from 10 people who died of cocaine overdoses and 10 people who died of other causes. Most of the alterations involved proteins that enable brain cells to connect and communicate with each other.

"The findings provide new insights into the long-term effects and damage that cocaine has on the human brain and will help guide future animal studies to further delineate the biochemical changes that comprise the addicted brain," said lead researcher Scott E. Hemby, Ph.D.

The research was published Oct. 31 in the online version of the journal Molecular Psychiatry.