Answer Addiction

Category: Addiction Risks

  • Brain Research Could Help ID People At Risk For Addiction

    Brain Research Could Help ID People At Risk For Addiction

    Understanding risk factors for addiction could help doctors better respond to the opioid crisis.

    Addiction is a brain disease, but there has been surprisingly little research into the brain structures that can contribute to the disease.

    Now, study authors are arguing that a better understanding of how brain development and damage can contribute to addiction is important to help identify people who are most at risk. 

    “Addiction is a disease of decision-making,” Antoine Bechara, a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California told the school’s news service. “The majority of people have intact brain mechanisms of decision-making that keep them resilient to succumbing to an addiction. The question is, who is more vulnerable and how do we best determine that?”

    Weak Prefrontal Cortex Plays A Role

    Bechara is the lead author of a paper published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest. His paper examines the role of the prefrontal cortex and the insula in increasing a person’s risk for addiction. The researchers note that a “weak prefrontal cortex”—the area of the brain associated with decision making—can increase risk for addiction. 

    Weakness in that area of the brain can be caused by genetic factors. However, environmental factors including early childhood abuse can also inhibit the development of the prefrontal cortex. When the area is under-developed, a person can become susceptible to substance use disorder. 

    “There are several factors that create the situation where the prefrontal cortex is suboptimal or weak, and the decision-making capacity doesn’t develop normally,” said Bechara. “These are people who become more susceptible to becoming addicted not just to opioids but other drugs they have access to.”

    The authors would like to see further research into whether brain scanning can predict which individuals are at risk for addiction. They also point out that brain stimulation could potentially help treat addiction.

    Who’s At Risk? 

    Understanding who is at risk for developing addiction could help doctors better respond to the opioid crisis, by finding a middle ground amid what Bechara calls the “two extreme positions” that medical providers have taken. 

    “First, the pharmaceutical companies sold the idea that opioid medications will only be used by people in pain and people won’t become addicted,” he said. “That’s not true, because you have no way of telling who is susceptible to becoming addicted and who is not.”

    He continued, “The overreaction by doctors is another extreme; because of the fear that everyone is going to be addicted to opioids, they are not prescribing them to people in chronic pain who may need them. There are a lot of people who could benefit from controlled administration of those medications, which work very well to treat pain.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Gene Mutation, Early Childhood Adversity Can Increase Addiction Risks

    Gene Mutation, Early Childhood Adversity Can Increase Addiction Risks

    A new study found that people with a specific gene mutation and stressful lives were more likely to use drugs or alcohol before they were 15.

    People who have a specific gene mutation and who experience adverse experience early in life increase their risk for alcoholism and drug use, according to a study released this week. 

    The study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, found that a mutation of the gene COMT, which helps the body manage dopamine, is connected with increased risk for alcoholism and drug use when people with the mutation experience early childhood adversity. 

    The research was conducted at the University of Oklahoma. 

    “Early-life adversity doesn’t make everyone an alcoholic,” study author William R. Lovallo, of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine said in a news release. “But this study showed that people with this genetic mutation are going to have a higher risk for addiction when they had a stressful life growing up.”

    A Look at the Gene Mutation

    People with the mutation were more affected by stress, which might include events like divorce, abuse or distant parents. People with the mutation and stressful lives were more likely to use drugs or alcohol before they were 15, a major risk factor for future drug use. 

    Lovallo explained, “This one random mutation makes a difference in how the COMT gene works fine in one person but not as well in another person. There is no such thing as a gene for addiction, but there are genes that respond to our environment in ways that put us at risk. You have to have the right combination to develop the risk factors.”

    Lovallo has been researching addiction and risk factors for more than 20 years. 

    “Addiction is a real health problem, and to be making progress toward understanding it is one of the most exciting and worthwhile things I’ve ever done,” he said. 

    Environment & Genetics

    Identifying a specific gene that increases the risk factors for addiction is a major triumph, he said. The interplay of genetics and environmental factors can help us better understand addiction and who is most at risk for developing substance use disorders, he said. 

    “Many of us know people who drink alcohol moderately and never have any problems. And we know people who drink a little and then go down the path toward alcoholism,” Lovallo said. “What’s the difference between going down that path and not going down that path? Now we have a better understanding that it’s not just exposure to alcohol or drugs that leads to problems; there is a genetic component.”

    View the original article at thefix.com