How drugs and alcohol affect the brain is of great concern to researchers and medical professionals – how the brain reacts to drugs, and how drugs change how the brain works, are critical factors in addiction treatment
How drugs and alcohol affect the brain is of great concern to researchers and medical professionals – how the brain reacts to drugs, and how drugs change how the brain works, are critical factors in addiction treatment
A new study in rats has found that N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a commonly available and generally nontoxic amino acid derivative, reverses changes in the brain’s circuitry associated with cocaine addiction. The reversal appears to lessen the cravings associated with cocaine, thus helping to prevent relapse.
There may be a direct link between smoking cigarettes and brain damage, according to a new study from the Indian National Brain Research Center. Science Daily reports that researchers Debapriya Ghosh and Dr. Anirban Basu have found that a compound in tobacco provokes white blood cells in the central nervous system to attack healthy cells, leading to severe neurological damage.
There are several popular misconceptions circulating in society today as to what exactly addiction is, and whether or not addiction should be treated as a disease by health professionals. To many scientists, addiction has long been associated as a by-product of altered mental states where the brain cannot distinguish between healthy and unhealthy behavior. For example, addictions manifested in the form of obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) are thought to arise from abnormal neuron firing in the brain; in other words, the brain of an addict displays the same need for the desired object in the same way that one would crave basic necessities like food or water. However, scientists from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine have revealed surprising information on how an addiction can actually alter the activity of certain proteins and neurons in the brain. This new research can help scientists understand why addiction is so hard to overcome, and how to effectively prevent and treat addict relapses.
