Blavatsky Blogger
Taking Theosophical
ideas
into the 21st
century
Brain-imaging
studies show
why addicts get no pleasure from
anything but their drug of choice.
Posted
26/11/07
Recent
research on addiction has brought to light the key role of the neurotransmitter
dopamine. Among other things, dopamine governs the brain's reward system it
tells you "that feels good" when you do something pleasurable.
It's
already known that addictive drugs, including alcohol, trigger a rush of
dopamine. Getting that literal rush is such a powerful reward that it's a big
part of the reason addicts go back to drugs, even though they know objectively
that it's a truly bad idea.
Now
comes a paper in the Journal of Neuroscience that adds
another key piece to the addiction puzzle. Nora Volkow,
director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, along with several
colleagues, used brain-imaging studies to look at the dopamine responses of
alcoholics not to alcohol, but to a different drug, methylphenidate, better
known by its trade name Ritalin. In normal subjects, the drug causes a spike in
dopamine in the brain's prefrontal cortex.
But
in alcoholics, the study found, that spike is significantly muted. Says Volkow: "It could explain why alcoholics encounter a
decrease in the ability to experience pleasure from everyday activities."
In
essence, they've been overstimulating their dopamine
systems for so long with alcohol that their brains have become numb. It also
explains why so many relapse into drinking; it's the one way they can
experience any sort of pleasure.
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