Under the influence of a powerful and harmful chemical, individuals abusing substances like benzodiazepines or heroin can alter the function of their brain. Uncover five simple yet impactful ways you can guide your teen to build resilience, make smart choices, and steer clear of the dangers of substance abuse. The very fast and very intense flood of dopamine generated by taking a drug of abuse motivates repetition of the drug-taking. Under the influence of dopamine, that repetition changes the wiring of the brain in ways to increase the drug-wanting and decrease the ability to regulate the drug usage.

Adolescents who misuse drugs may face persistent health issues that carry into adulthood. These can include chronic mental health problems, relationship difficulties, and challenges with personal growth and stability. The road to recovery is often complicated, as young people frequently encounter overlapping mental health and substance use disorders, making comprehensive treatment essential. Substance abuse has significant psychological effects and mental health implications.

Stimuli Associated with Addictive Substances Can Trigger Substance Use

Here, we therefore address these criticisms, and in doing so provide a contemporary update of the brain disease view of addiction. We provide arguments to support this view, discuss why apparently spontaneous remission does not negate it, and how seemingly compulsive behaviors can co-exist with the sensitivity to alternative reinforcement in addiction. Most importantly, we argue that the brain is the biological substrate from which both addiction and the capacity for behavior change arise, arguing for an intensified neuroscientific study of recovery. More broadly, we propose that these disagreements reveal the need for multidisciplinary research that integrates neuroscientific, behavioral, clinical, and sociocultural perspectives.

Introducing the Human Brain

The critical role of alternative reinforcers was elegantly brought into modern neuroscience by Ahmed et al., who showed that rats extensively trained to self-administer cocaine would readily forego the drug if offered a sweet solution as an alternative 103. This was later also found to be the case for heroin 103, methamphetamine 104 and alcohol 105. Early residential laboratory studies on alcohol use disorder indeed revealed orderly operant control over alcohol consumption 106. Furthermore, efficacy of treatment approaches such as contingency management, which provides systematic incentives for abstinence 107, supports the notion that behavioral choices in patients with addictions remain sensitive to reward contingencies. For alcohol addiction, meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies has estimated heritability at ~50%, while estimates for opioid addiction are even higher 44, 45.

How Does Addiction Affect The Brain?

• It has been argued that a genetic contribution cannot support a disease view of a behavior, because most behavioral traits, including religious and political inclinations, have a genetic contribution 4.
• Unfortunately, the belief that people with addictions are simply making bad choices pervades.
• The emotional and psychological impact of substance abuse is significant and shouldn’t be underestimated.
• From a contemporary neuroscience perspective, pre-existing vulnerabilities and persistent drug use lead to a vicious circle of substantive disruptions in the brain that impair and undermine choice capacities for adaptive behavior, but do not annihilate them.

For clinical purposes, those polygenic scores will of course not replace an understanding of the intricate web of biological and social factors that promote or prevent expression of addiction in an individual case; rather, they will add to it 49. Meanwhile, however, genome-wide association studies in addiction have already provided important information. For instance, they have established that the genetic underpinnings of alcohol addiction only partially overlap with those for alcohol consumption, underscoring the genetic distinction between pathological and nonpathological drinking behaviors 50. Collectively, the data show that the course of SUD, as defined by current diagnostic criteria, is highly heterogeneous.

Effects of Drug Addiction on Behavior

The changes in the brain responsible for these maladaptive behaviors can persist for months or even years after drug discontinuation but are amenable to treatment. Treatment should be aimed at improving self-regulation; helping to control craving and the emergence of distressing emotions, including depression and anxiety; and improving the sensitivity to alternative reinforcers. Addiction is a chronic disease, so its treatment should follow a sustained model of intervention, the intensity of which should be adjusted to the stage of the disease. Treatment should also be personalized and calibrated to the severity of the addiction, the presence of comorbidities, and the individual’s support systems. Crucially, addiction can be prevented, and both universal as well as tailored strategies can significantly reduce substance use disorder in the individual and in a population.

The notion of addiction as a brain disease is commonly criticized with the argument that a specific pathognomonic brain lesion has not been identified. Indeed, brain imaging findings in addiction (perhaps with the exception of extensive neurotoxic gray matter loss in advanced alcohol addiction) are nowhere near the level of specificity and sensitivity required of clinical diagnostic tests. However, this criticism neglects the fact that neuroimaging is not used to diagnose many neurologic and psychiatric disorders, including epilepsy, ALS, migraine, Huntington’s disease, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. Even among conditions where signs of disease can be detected using brain imaging, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, a scan is best used in conjunction with clinical acumen when making the diagnosis. Thus, the requirement that addiction be detectable with a brain scan in order to be classified as a disease does not recognize the role of neuroimaging in the clinic.

The best way to overcome substance use disorders (SUDs) is to get professional treatment. This allows individuals to get unique treatment, physical and psychological help, and a deeper understanding of their addiction. The brain responds to addiction based on a number of factors, such as the type and number of drugs used, the frequency of use, and the stage of addiction that has developed. This occurs because cocaine is psychoactive and impacts the area of the brain that controls pleasure and motivation. There is a short and powerful burst of dopamine, the chemical that causes many to feel euphoric. This feeling can be so intense that a strong desire to continue using may form.

How to advocate for yourself and others in recovery

The few studies exploring the use of TMS for the treatment of methamphetamine addiction have yielded promising but somewhat less consistent results (201, 206, 313). In addition, a recent smoking cessation trial using TMS targeting the DLPFC and insula, bilaterally, resulted in significantly reduced cigarette consumption and nicotine dependence scores that acted synergistically with concomitant cue exposure therapy (88). Clearly, more research and larger clinical studies will be needed to identify the source of some conflicting results (98), optimize TMS parameters for different indications, and ascertain the full therapeutic potential of TMS in addiction. For these reasons, TMS has also emerged as a promising technique to treat patients with co-morbid SUD and other mental illnesses (73, 325, 331). Epidemiologically, it is well established that social determinants of health, including major racial and ethnic disparities, play a significant role in the risk for addiction 75, 76.

Comfort Eating and Recovery

Genetic variation plays a significant role in establishing interindividual differences in addiction risk. Studies focused on variability among identical and nonidentical siblings have produced a rough estimate of ~50% for the contribution of genetic differences to overall addiction risk. However, common https://yourhealthmagazine.net/article/addiction/sober-houses-rules-that-you-should-follow/ genetic vulnerability has also been reported for SUD and internalizing disorders (282), providing a link for the frequent comorbidity between SUD and anxiety and depression (207, 268). In addition to these common genetic factors, studies have also identified genetic variants that are mostly specific for a given drug. Most notable are the genetic variants that encode for the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) enzymes that lead to impaired metabolism of alcohol and that provide protection against alcoholism (74).

• Moreover, the function of the PFC in addicted individuals has been shown to predict clinical outcomes, a disrupted connectivity between PFC and striatal regions being a consistent finding among individuals addicted to various drug classes (326).
• Psychoactive substances affect the parts of the brain that involve reward, pleasure, and risk.
• While neuroplasticity is the great liberator of the mind, allows people to learn languages and remember birthdays, and fuels the imagination, it has a dark side.
• Research indicates that almost half of children with untreated mental health conditions may develop a substance use disorder later in life.
• We have identified many of the biological and environmental risk factors and are beginning to search for the genetic variations that contribute to the development and progression of the disorder.

This happens because addictive substances trigger an outsized response when they reach the brain. Instead of a simple, pleasurable surge of dopamine, many drugs of abuse—such as opioids, cocaine, or nicotine—cause dopamine to flood the reward pathway, 10 times more than a natural reward. Addiction doesn’t just alter brain chemistry; it physically reshapes the brain’s structure and function. Neuroimaging studies have revealed significant changes in various brain regions of individuals struggling with addiction. These alterations can persist long after substance use has ceased, underscoring the long-term impact of addiction on brain health. Decades of sober house research demonstrate that chronic substance misuse leads to profound disruptions of brain circuits involved in the experience of pleasure or reward, habit formation, stress, and decision-making.

The continuous use of substances alters brain structure and functionality, disrupting cognitive processes, impulse control, and decision-making abilities. This deterioration can lead to a situation where individuals with addiction find it increasingly difficult to manage their mental health effectively. Continued advances in neuroscience research will further enhance our understanding of substance use disorders and accelerate the development of new interventions.