Category: Addiction

Addiction Round Up

The posts go from the biological all the way through policy, so pick the spot that suits you best.

PZ Myers, Evolution of Alcohol Synthesis
Yeast fermentation and learning to drink your own poison

NewsWise, New Research Tracks Effects of Addictive Drugs on Brain
Summary of the Science article “Design Logic of a Cannabinoid Receptor Signaling Network that Triggers Neurite Outgrowth”—how signaling driven by drugs can lead to changes in cell connections and cytoarchitecture (surprises? roles for breast cancer proteins and “distributed decision-making” in neurite outgrowth)

Alok Jha, Scans Pinpoint Alcohol’s Effects on the Human Brain
Dampening fear and avoidance, and upping reward

BlogMeister, Genes and Environment Shape Women’s Path to Alcoholism
Study of the transitions towards alcoholism; genetics all the way through, different environmental factors at different stages (see the original study here)

The Neurocritic, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee?
Now this is epigenetics! Smelling coffee gets the genes going

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The Neuroanth Hangover

A Few Too Many? Joan Acocella gives us the low-down on hang-overs, offering us hope (what little there is), science, anthropology, and even some morality! It’s a great article in The New Yorker, a neuroanth mash best enjoyed with a beer or a whiskey.

She covers the theories of why we have hang-overs in the first place, going through withdrawal, dehydration, inflammation (particularly due to cytokines), and congeners (impurities from the fermentation process). To these particularly bodily reactions, Acocella adds the role of genetics. Some people have a greater toxic response, often due to less alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme which breaks down alcohol. Others feel less of a withdrawal effect, building up tolerance more quickly.

Beyond the genetics, she also highlights an interesting theory to help explain hangovers. Wayne Jones has proposed that the liver process alcohol in two stages, first the ethanol (the alcohol) and then the methanol (a secondary ingredient in many wines and liquors). Methanol breaks down into formic acid, which is quite toxic. The main recipe to deal with this? Delay the move to methanol (drink some more) or distract yourself, say with spicy foods, to “divert the body’s attention away from coping with alcohol.” Or try comfort foods, again, to deal with the stress, inflammation, and toxins.

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College Drinking: Battle of the Sexes?

By: Carolyn, Andrew, Brandon, and Sarah

Drunk- this five letter word has many connotations, ranging in extremes from positive memories to negative stigmas. For men and women, it is one word that has different meanings, from the number of drinks it takes to get drunk to the behaviors men and women are expected to exhibit while drinking. For college women and men in particular, binge drinking is an area in which they relate quite distinctly with alcohol. Gender norms, rituals and relations often lead to, and perpetuate, binge drinking on campuses nationwide.

Many aspects of college drinking are unique. Tailgating is one of them. Where else can you find people drinking excessive amounts of alcohol early in the morning? At big football schools, tailgating facilitates the social learning of binge drinking as a normal and acceptable behavior. The ritualized drinking associated with tailgating is often the first place where students are introduced to binge drinking. It also sets a precedent of drinking enough alcohol to get drunk and stay drunk for an extended period of time.

In the fall, people tailgate every weekend before football games. In the ritual of tailgating, binge drinking as a socially learned experience is evidenced by the fact that students learn to drink from the very alumni whom they are taught to respect and admire. Across the nation, students only need to leave their dorms to encounter the alumni who have been drinking since early morning. Since this is often a student’s first exposure to binge drinking, students may initially be shocked to find huge crowds of people drinking heavily in parking lots and around campus. The immersion in the football culture, which often depends upon tailgates, will soon numb any hesitation or doubts the student may have.

Tailgating perpetuates binge drinking among the general student population, but its significance varies based on gender. During a typical night out, a college student may consume four or five drinks to “pregame” before the actual party has even started. Many students do not realize that this qualifies as binge drinking, and that it impacts women and men differently.

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Culture and Learning to Drink: What Age?


By: Micaela, Richard, Colleen, and Caitlin

In a 1983 landmark study conducted by Harvard psychiatrist Dr. George Valliant, it was found that young men who grew up in homes where alcohol was forbidden at the dinner table were seven times more likely to become alcoholics. The following year, the United States Congress voted to raise the legal drinking age to 21.

Responsibility is a lesson that all parents want to impart to their children. But because of this federal law forbidding alcohol consumption until the age of 21, most parents fail to teach their children responsible drinking habits. The question becomes, why is drinking different than any other life lesson?

In a New York Times article entitled, Can Sips at Home Prevent Binges? Eric Asimov confronts this very question. With two young boys who are fast approaching adolescence, Asimov discusses how difficult a decision he and his wife face. Should they slowly and responsibly introduce alcohol at the dinner table? Or should they, as the government mandates, forbid alcohol consumption altogether? The answer isn’t a simple one.

After the collapse of Prohibition, nearly all states instituted a minimum legal drinking age of 21. However, by the early 1970’s, twenty-nine states lowered the minimum legal drinking age to 18,19, or 20, while also extending other privileges, like the right to vote, to younger citizens.

In the late 1970s the national mood about teenage drinking underwent a drastic change because of several highly publicized studies that examined the correlation between the younger drinking age and motor vehicle crashes. Teenage alcohol abuse was deemed a devastating problem that corresponded to more traffic injuries and fatalities among America’s youth. The advent of these studies coupled with the nationwide campaign effort by Candy Lightner and her organization, MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) primed the American people for major change in legislation.

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It’s Our Fault: Denial, Disease and Addiction

By Danny Smith, Jimmy Wilson, Will Yeatman, Rachel Guerrera, and Mark Hinken

It’s our fault. But let’s spread the blame. The burden also lies on the shoulders of the educational community. And society itself. There is a serious misconception that exists. This misconception is that chemical dependence is not a disease. By not recognizing chemical dependence as a disease, society continues to hold harmful stereotypes about alcoholism and drug addiction.

The goal of this blog post is to address this major problem facing drug addicts and alcoholics. Society enables chemical dependence by causing denial. Denial helps create a vicious cycle that traps addicts. They tell themselves they do not have a problem and reject the idea to others that a problem exists.

However, denial is not just prevalent in cases of chemical reliance. It is common in everyday life, seen in issues concerning body image, gambling, sex and social interaction. In these cases, like addiction, denial stems from the social stigmas produced by society.

In today’s culture having a slim and fit body is heavily desired and expected. People who do not conform to the lofty standards set by models and Hollywood elite often feel abnormal and subject to ridicule. As a consequence anorexia, bulimia and dysmorphia have become more common among the current population. However, though these three eating disorders are labeled as real diseases, they are viewed as taboo in society. Therefore, people who suffer from anorexia often deny to others or even themselves that they really have a problem with a serious disease.

US society does not often pair diseases such as anorexia and alcoholism with diseases like cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Yet they are all chronic diseases. If the United States came to view chemical dependence with the same empathy as cancer, we could help eliminate the destructive low self-esteem and denial found in chemically reliant individuals.
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Understanding Brain Imaging


By Chris Dudley, Matt Gasperetti, Mikey Narvaez, and Sarah Walorski

Do you remember the anti-drug public service announcement from the 1980s that showed an egg frying in a hot pan which represented your brain on drugs?

During the 1990s, brain imaging moved beyond fried eggs as computer technology allowed researchers to process large amounts of data required for functional imaging approaches. As a result, the PSA mentioned above no longer provides the most accurate analogy illustrating what happens to the brain when exposed to drugs.

Today, brain imaging research has helped create a sophisticated “disease model” of chemical dependence related to changes in the function of neurotransmitters and receptors in the brain. These circuits are responsible for reward processing, memory and learning, motivation and drive, in addition to control (Nora Volkow describes these circuits in a 2004 literature review).

This particular post focuses on the techniques used most commonly to study the brain’s role in addiction and other mental health problems. We will cover the principle behind each method, advantages and limitations of each, and provide an example of the results that can be obtained.

Beyond the Frying Pan: EEG and CT

Electroencephalography (EEG) and Computed tomography (CT) were two of the first methods used to study the brain. EEG utilizes electrodes placed on the scalp that measure electrical impulses, whereas CT creates a three-dimensional image of the brain with two-dimensional x-rays.

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