Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction

From NIDA:

"Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction" was unveiled today by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of the National Institutes of Health. The 30-page full-color booklet explains in layman's terms how science has revolutionized the understanding of drug addiction as a brain disease that affects behavior. NIDA hopes this new publication will help reduce stigma against addictive disorders.

"Thanks to science, our views and our responses to drug abuse have changed dramatically, but many people today still do not understand why people become addicted to drugs or how drugs change the brain to foster compulsive drug abuse," said NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. "This booklet aims to fill that knowledge gap by providing scientific information about the disease of drug addiction in language that is easily understandable to the public."

The "Science of Addiction" booklet discusses the reasons people take drugs, why some people become addicted while others do not, how drugs work in the brain, and how addiction can be prevented and treated. Like diabetes, asthma or heart disease, drug addiction is a chronic disease that can be managed successfully. Treatment helps to counteract addiction's powerful disruptive effects and helps people regain control of their lives. The new booklet points out that just as with other chronic diseases, relapses can happen. The publication further explains that relapse is not a signal of treatment failure - rather, it indicates that treatment should be reinstated or adjusted to help the addict fully recover.

Who's Next: Nora Volkow--Newsweek

Nora Volkow, the Director of NIDA, made Newsweek's Who's Next list for the year. The article gives an overview of her work.

She talks a little about the role of dopamine and the effects of stress on the number of dopamine receptors. When I posted her talk this weekend I forgot to mention this. It provokes some interesting questions about the role of stress in relapse and addiction onset.

Drug Addiction: Neurobiology of Disrupted Free Will

Nora Volkow, the Director of NIDA gives a talk about the neurobiology of addiction. (RealVideo)

UPDATE: I watched the entire video and, while it can be a challenge to follow, it is well worth the time. Her talk adds a lot to the brain research of the last decade, presenting a model that includes the cumulative effects of at least three brain areas/functions.

• The role of the primitive limbic and reward systems in directing survival drives toward drug use.
  
• The role of memory circuits in determining the importance/power of the expected reward. She explains the importance of this in development of addiction and relapse. In the context of relapse, she talks about the power that neutral stimuli can have on dopamine levels and activating the limbic system.
  
• The role of impairment in the orbital frontal cortex in determining the contextual costs and benefits. This impairment can even tilt the scales toward the reward when it risks survival and competing limbic drives should be protecting the addict. (Explaining the experience of the addict who says "I don't want to do it anymore. I don't enjoy it anymore and I know it's ruining my life. I don't understand why I keep doing it.")

Like I said above, it's well worth the time. She appears to have enough direct clinical experience with addicts that she is able to illustrate the neurobiology with real world clinical examples. Also, On several occasions I recalled Big Book passages that fit perfectly with what Dr. Volkow described.

Hat tip: New Recovery