NRSC 4132 Blog

It is difficult to find someone who truly has not seen the atrocious affects of drugs on a person. Whether it be a close friend or family member, an ad in a newspaper, or one of those haunting Colorado-Meth-Project commercials, the word is out: drugs kill. And they are killing more and more than ever before.

The dangers of addiction are widely known, yet countless lives are constantly being enslaved to the heinous power of addictive drugs. Thus, addiction is the area of interest in countless labs across the world. Understanding the neurological pathways of drug addiction is vital in the ongoing "war on drugs" that seems like it will never come to a halt. In fact, according to the Mayo Clinic, 19.5 million people over the age of 12 use illegal drugs in the United States [1]. But, if there is a chance of recovery and relief, it is my belief that it will not come from lawmakers or the police force, but rather from the realm of science.

One such study was published in Neuron this year: Potential Vulnerabilities of Neuronal Reward, Risk, and Decision Mechanisms to Addictive Drugs. It sought out to explore how the normal, physiological reward processes can be affected by addictive drugs. It all came down to changes in acute responses and plasticity in the brain, specifically dopamine neurons and postsynaptic structures. Dopamine has many functions in the brain, including important roles in behavior and cognition, voluntary movement, motivation and reward, inhibition of prolactin production (involved in lactation), sleep, mood, attention, and learning [2].

These effects reduce reward discrimination, increase the effects of reward prediction error signals, and enhance neuronal responses to reward-predicting stimuli, which may contribute to compulsion [3]. Addictive drugs increase neuronal temporal reward discounting and generate temporal myopia, which impairs the control of drug taking.
The experiment also found that long-term enhanced dopamine levels may disturb working memory mechanisms necessary for assessing background rewards. Thus, drugs may generate inaccurate neuronal reward predictions. Drug-induced working memory deficits may also impair neuronal risk signaling, promote risky behaviors, and facilitate preaddictive drug use. Malfunctioning adaptive reward coding may lead to overvaluation of drug rewards. Many of these malfunctions may result in inadequate neuronal decision mechanisms and lead to choices biased toward drug rewards [3].

Studies like this are incredibly important not only to drug-users and their loved ones, but to society as a whole. I will never forget the day I met a homeless man in Denver who asked me if you can fly on a plane if you have a warrant out for your arrest. I learned that he was trying to get home to his family in Michigan after ten years of being away. One day at work he was feeling really low and tried some "white powder" and he saidwithin a few months he lost his job, his family, his friends, his home... But the one thing he still had the day I met him was hope, which is inspiring to all, for society can only move forward as a united front that has overcome the trials of addiction.

[1] http://www.usnodrugs.com/drug-addiction-statistics.htm
[2] http://www.news-medical.net/health/Dopamine-Functions.aspx
[3] http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273%2811%2900112-7