About NIDA. Points to Remember Drug addiction is a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive, or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences. This is why drug addiction is also a relapsing disease. Relapse is the return to drug use after an attempt to stop.
Relapse indicates the need for more or different treatment. Most drugs affect the brain's reward circuit by flooding it with the chemical messenger dopamine.
Surges of dopamine in the reward circuit cause the reinforcement of pleasurable but unhealthy activities, leading people to repeat the behavior again and again. Over time, the brain adjusts to the excess dopamine, which reduces the high that the person feels compared to the high they felt when first taking the drug—an effect known as tolerance. They might take more of the drug, trying to achieve the same dopamine high. No single factor can predict whether a person will become addicted to drugs.
A combination of genetic, environmental, and developmental factors influences risk for addiction. Drug addiction is treatable and can be successfully managed. But not all members of an affected family are necessarily prone to addiction. Other factors can also raise your chances of addiction. Teens are especially vulnerable to possible addiction because their brains are not yet fully developed—particularly the frontal regions that help with impulse control and assessing risk.
Pleasure circuits in adolescent brains also operate in overdrive, making drug and alcohol use even more rewarding and enticing. NIH is launching a new nationwide study to learn more about how teen brains are altered by alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other drugs. Researchers will use brain scans and other tools to assess more than 10, youth over a year span.
The study will track the links between substance use and brain changes, academic achievement, IQ, thinking skills, and mental health over time. To treat addiction, scientists have identified several medications and behavioral therapies—especially when used in combination—that can help people stop using specific substances and prevent relapse.
Unfortunately, no medications are yet available to treat addiction to stimulants such as cocaine or methamphetamine, but behavioral therapies can help. More severe cases might require months or even years of treatment and follow-up, with real efforts by the individual and usually complete abstinence from the substance afterward. It's what gives people the feeling of pleasure and reinforces behaviors critical for survival, such as eating food and having sex.
When someone uses a drug or engages in a pleasurable experience, the same natural reward circuitry is activated. Hitoshi Morikawa, an associate professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin. Different drugs tap into the dopamine reward system in different ways. Marijuana and heroin have a chemical structure similar to another neurotransmitter and can trick some brain cells into activating neurons that use dopamine.
Cocaine and amphetamines , on the other hand, prolong the effect of dopamine on its target neurons, disrupting normal communication in the brain.
How quickly each drug can get into the brain, and how powerfully it activates neural circuits, determines how addictive it will be, Morikawa told Live Science. Some modes of use, like injecting or snorting a drug, make the drug's effects almost immediate. As individuals continue with addictive habits or substances, the brain adapts.
It tries to reestablish a balance between the dopamine surges and normal levels of the substance in the brain, Morikawa said. These physical changes make drug use even harder to quit, as a person loses their ability to make rational decisions and control impulses. Although drug addiction creates physical and chronic changes in the brain, there is good news.
The brain can be re-wired again. Substance addiction is actually very treatable and manageable. Overcoming addiction requires modified routines and thought processes.
It means replacing drug use with healthy behaviors like exercise and cooking. This requires education, combined with cognitive therapy to get to the root of their drug-using behaviors. Over time, the brain can be taught to crave healthier behaviors and to dismiss drug cravings by considering the outcomes and alternatives.
It can be taught to seek and prioritize meaningful relationships and activities, rather than drugs and alcohol. It can be taught this through abstinence, ongoing therapy, active management, cognitive reframing , and professional support. While professional drug treatment can help a person re-wire their brain back to a healthier state, we as loved ones have some re-wiring to do as well. We need to re-frame the way we think about addiction.
0コメント