Penn Researchers Use MRI To Study Drug Addiction

March 05,2013

What is drug addiction, and why do over 22 million people in the USA alone need drug addiction treatment?

Penn Researchers Use MRI To Study Drug Addiction

What is drug addiction, and why do over 22 million people in the USA alone need drug addiction treatment?

Drug addiction is an illness, and the possibility of finding a cure lies not necessarily with more drugs, but in finding a better and more specific understanding of why people become addicted to drugs. To that end, the University of Pennsylvania is conducting studies utilizing MRI scans to better understand the changes in the brain that allow the drugs to œhijack the reward system.

Their hypothesis is that by observing changes in the brain as triggers are presented, researchers will be better able to predict which treatments will be successful with specific addicts, and which will relapse. If the prediction of outcome is accurate, then the opportunity for discovering a œcure for addiction might be within reach.

Often, people think a 30 day program is enough to œkick start recovery, or that after a 90 day stay at a rehab, their addict is going to be just fine. Sadly, it's unrealistic. Addiction not only doesn't happen overnight, it is not limited to the addict themselves. Addiction is a disease that affects everyone who cares about the addict. This means that in addition to getting treatment and finding cures for the addict, identifying and managing the addiction from the family's perspective, can be just as important. Obviously, curing the family won't cure the addict.

The root of addiction is biological, and suggesting that it is only a matter of willpower is foolish. The time for willpower is before the drug user becomes a drug addict. Addiction is like juvenile diabetes, in that a person can have all the ingredients to become diabetic, but so long as they remain œunder the bar, they won't ever suffer from it. Once they go over the bar, they have a new floor. Once you use, your proximity to the bar gets closer and closer. Once you cross the line, there is no turning back. You've found a new floor, and you are an addict, either in or out of recovery. Unless, that is, the researchers are correct and can identify the changes that occur in the brain and make changes to the brain in its perception of those changes.

œJust say No! is an anti-drug campaign that makes a lot of sense to those who never tried a drug that alters their perception. It's effective, but proactively, not retroactively. Once addiction is a way of life, there is a higher calling that addicts follow, and not by choice. When drugs mimic the endorphin signatures, they block the brain's natural functions, and when the pleasure centers of the brain aren't satisfied, nobody is happy. So when endorphins don't fire, the brain screams for you to use your drug to make it happy. And unless you have support and willpower, you will pick up once more. At least, that's the way it is now.

So far, certain drug therapies have been effective in reducing and eliminating the cravings, not just of drugs, but of cigarettes and marijuana as well. But it doesn't fix one thing: you have to want to get better, or nothing works.

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