Contact:
Sally H. Jones
(434) 981-0731
sallyhjones@virginia.edu

UVA Addiction Expert Featured on CNN Special with Dr. Sanjay Gupta

"Addiction: Life on the Edge," Premieres Saturday, April 18 at 8 p.m. EST and Highlights UVA Health System's Groundbreaking Research with Anti-Addiction Medication

bankole
 Professor Johnson
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., April 17, 2009 - University of Virginia Health System Professor Bankole Johnson, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., will appear in the latest documentary by CNN's popular medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, M.D.  The hour-long program investigates a new generation of medications that are proving effective at curbing substance addictions. 

Johnson, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences in the UVA School of Medicine, is featured in the program for his work with topiramate, a medication he and his team have used as a way to block the dopamine pathway in the brain, a pleasure pathway that mediates the urge to drink alcohol.  Treatment with topiramate, in combination with behavioral therapy, has proven highly effective for many patients in clinical trials.

"I think that addictive disorders are mostly biologically-driven," Johnson says.  "It's been shown over and over with research studies that the effects of medicine are over and above that of therapy alone.  If you're not getting the medicine, it's a bit like having one hand tied behind your back."

The UVA research team also is studying medications to treat addictions to cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as other medications to treat alcoholism.  Researchers are working to understand more fully the genetics and neurobiology of the disease.

For more information about the use of topiramate and about addiction in general, the UVA Center for Addiction Research and Education (C.A.R.E.) website is:  http://www.hsc.virginia.edu/internet/addiction-trials/about_topiramate.cfm. 

Viewers may call (434) 243-0549 or (888) 882-2345 for more information about enrolling in a clinical trial.

The CNN Presents documentary, "Addiction: Life on the Edge," is scheduled to air on Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19, at 8 p.m., 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. each day.  In addition to interviewing medical researchers and counselors, Dr. Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent and neurosurgeon, follows a mother, a writer, a student and a husband -- each an addict on a journey through recovery and relapse.

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