The science of addiction: what brain research tells us about drug addiction.

The impact of addiction can be far-reaching:

* Cardiovascular disease

* Stroke

* Cancer

* HIV/AIDS

* Hepatitis C

* Lung disease

* Obesity

* Mental disorders

How serious is drug addiction?

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), drug addiction is "a chronic, relapsing disease, characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, and by neurochemical and molecular changes in the brain." Like other chronic diseases, drug addiction can seriously impair the functioning of the body's organs. It can also increase the risk of contracting other diseases, such as HIV and viral hepatitis, not just among those who inject drugs, but also through risky behaviors stemming from drug-impaired judgment.

Drug addiction often results from drug abuse, which is the use of illegal drugs or the inappropriate use of legal drugs to produce pleasure, to alleviate stress, or to alter or avoid reality (or all three). Risk factors for addiction and protective factors against it (see table below) can be environmental as well as genetic. Scientists estimate that genetic factors, including environmental effects on these genes, account for between 40 and 60 percent of a person's vulnerability to addiction. Recent research has begun to uncover which genes make a person more vulnerable, which genes protect a person against addiction, and how one's genes and environment interact. There is also evidence that individuals with mental disorders have a much greater risk of drug abuse and addiction than the general population.

What Is Addiction?

* Addiction is a complex disease. No single factor can predict who will become addicted to drugs. Addiction is influenced by a tangle of factors involving one's genes, environment, and age of first use.

* Addiction is a developmental disease. It usually begins in adolescence, even childhood, when the brain is continuing to undergo changes. The prefrontal cortex--located just behind the forehead--governs judgment and decision-making functions and is the last part of the brain to develop. This fact may help explain why teens are prone to risk-taking, and why they are also particularly vulnerable to drug abuse. It also explains why exposure to drugs during the teen years may affect the likelihood of someone becoming an addict in the future.

* Prevention and early intervention work best in the teen years. Because the teen brain is still developing, it may be more receptive to interventions to alter the course of addiction. Research has shown many risk factors that lead to drug abuse and addiction: mental illness, physical or sexual abuse, aggressive behavior, academic problems, poor social skills, and poor parent-child relations. This knowledge, combined with better understanding of how the teen brain works, can be applied to prevent drug abuse from starting or to intervene early to stop it when warning signs emerge.

One-Time Drug Use Can Set Stage for Relapse

In this experiment, rats pressed a lever in response to a cue (white noise) that had originally indicated access to cocaine even a year after the cue stopped being associated with drug availability. This is because there is a very strong association in the brain between the drug experience and the setting of the drug experience. Even a long-dormant craving may be triggered simply by encountering people, places, and things that were present during a previous drug usage--another reason never to use drugs of abuse even once.

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Prevention Resources

* NIDA and other organizations have spearheaded a number of programs to help prevent addiction, including:

--Family-based: Teaching parents better communication skills, appropriate discipline styles, and firm and consistent rule enforcement

--School-based: Building young people's skills in the areas of peer relationships, self-control, coping, and drug-refusal

--Community-based: Working with civic, religious, law enforcement, and government organizations to strengthen anti-drug norms and pro-social behaviors

* For more information on effective prevention programs, visit: www.nida.nih.gov/drugpages/prevention.html

* For help with a drug problem, call the National Addiction Treatment Hotline at 1-800-622-HELP or go to www.findtreatment.samhsa.gov

* For more information on healthy effects of drugs and on effective prevention and treatment approaches based on addiction research, visit NIDA at www.drugabuse.gov and www.teens.drugabuse.gov

AN INDIVIDUAL'S RISK AND PROTECTIVE
FACTORS FOR DRUG ADDICTION

                                  Protective
Risk Factors        Influencers   Factors

Early Aggressive    Self          Self-Control
Behavior

Lack of Parental    Family        Parental
Supervision                       Monitoring

Substance Abuse     Peers         Academic
                                  Competence

Drug Availability   School        Anti-Drug Use
                                  Policies

Poverty             Community     Strong Neighborhood
                                  Attachment