cannabisnews.com: Brain Signal Prompts Addictive Behavior Brain Signal Prompts Addictive Behavior Posted by CN Staff on April 09, 2003 at 12:12:33 PT By Lidia Wasowicz, UPI Senior Science Writer Source: United Press International Using state-of-the-art technology, researchers for the first time have measured, to the split-second, the chemical trigger that makes it difficult for addicts to just say, "No," to drugs, food, sex or other over-indulgences.The advance, accomplished by a team of psychologists, neuroscientists and chemists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, could pave the way toward novel treatments for habits that exact a heavy price, in health as well as dollars, investigators told United Press International. "Our findings are extremely significant because we have identified a dynamic signal in the brain that is highly influential on drug-taking," said Paul Phillips, research assistant professor of psychology. "Identifying signaling mechanisms that drive drug-taking provides potential targets for therapeutic intervention."Due to a lack of standardized classification methods, global addiction statistics are hard to come by, but officials attest to their epidemic proportions.For example, the United Nations International Drug Control Program estimates marijuana alone has 141 million users worldwide. In the United States, a 2001 survey showed some 15.9 million Americans 12 or older partook of illicit drugs. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration blamed the practice for 601,776 hospital emergency department visits that year.The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has implicated drug and alcohol overuse in the death of more than 120,000 Americans each year and in an annual bill totaling more than $294 billion in health care, lost productivity and other related costs.In their rat study, detailed in the April 10 issue of the British journal Nature, the scientists offer a much-anticipated solution to a "chicken-and-egg" puzzle of neurochemical cause and effect in addiction. They identify the key player as dopamine, the chemical that transports directives from the brain to other parts of the body.Dopamine is known to increase in levels during addictive behaviors, such as eating, taking drugs or having sex. Experiments revealed the brain releases the substance before as well as during pleasurable acts. Because the nervous systems of both rats and humans are similar when stimulated, scientists said they expect the rat results to apply to human research.In a critical difference from past surveys -- which gave a minute-by-minute account of brain processes underlying addiction -- the new research presents information about what happens over fractions of a second."The problem with previous methods is that they did not provide enough resolution to determine if dopamine release occurs before drug seeking is triggered," said David Self, associate professor of psychiatry and Lydia Bryant Test professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who analyzed the findings."The implications of this study are that split-second dopamine changes are sufficient to influence drug-taking behavior," Phillips told UPI.The high-tech investigation was made possible by a cutting-edge electrochemical technique called fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, pioneered by Mark Wightman, Kenan professor of chemistry and neuroscience at UT Southwestern."Without the advances in his lab and his expertise, this project would have been technically unfeasible," Phillips emphasized.Phillips, Wightman, Regina Carelli, Garret Stuber and Michael Heien monitored the release of dopamine over amazingly brief, 100-millisecond intervals -- about one-third the time the eye takes to blink and some 200 times faster than has ever been done before.Working with rats trained to press a lever to receive a cocaine "reward," the team found the chemical trigger both precedes and proceeds from the pursuit of gratification.The researchers measured dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, a brain region implicated in functions ranging from motivation and reward to feeding and drug addiction. They observed a brief dopamine burst seconds before the animals approached the lever. In rodents taught to associate a flash of light and a tone with a forthcoming "hit," the audiovisual cue itself was sufficient to get the dopamine flowing."Our work indicates that just the anticipation of receiving cocaine may cause significant increases in dopamine levels that may control drug-taking behaviors," said Carelli, associate professor of psychology.The dopamine levels continued to rise as the rodents closed in on the lever and pressed, peaking just after the animals got their "fix." No such rise in dopamine level was detected in control animals not trained to get cocaine on demand, Phillips said."As a rat chases its tail, drug addicts may suffer a similar vicious circle of priming and reward controlled by these dopamine signals," Self explained. "Therapies aimed at preventing one or both of these dopamine signals could be effective treatments for addiction."The irresistibility of the signals' effect is exemplified by the inability of food addicts to stop with just one bite, scientists said."Chocolate lovers whose cravings are strongly enhanced by tasting just a small morsel often experience this priming effect," Self told UPI. "The initial taste whets the appetite for more, explaining the brief shelf life of an open chocolate box."In suggesting the same chemical that produces euphoria with cocaine also can trigger yearning for the drug, the study raises the prospect of new treatments, scientists said."Pharmacological or behavioral treatments that blunt this dopamine pulse, without completely blocking all dopamine function, could be one way to prevent drug craving," Self said.The research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.Source: United Press InternationalAuthor: Lidia Wasowicz, UPI Senior Science WriterPublished: April 09, 2003Copyright 2003 United Press InternationalWebsite: http://www.upi.com/ Contact: http://www.upi.com/about/contact.cfmRelated Articles & Web Site:Chronic Cannabis Use in PDFhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/ccu.pdfCannabis 'Damages Mental Health'http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15900.shtmlCannabis a Medical Miracle - It's Official http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11254.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #19 posted by Industrial Strength on April 10, 2003 at 02:15:23 PT Hmm I don't think cocaine addicted rats have the same brain chemistry as cannabis smoking humans. I'm sure it's very similar though. [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by druid on April 09, 2003 at 23:20:27 PT oops forgot the conclusion Conclusions Weekly cannabis use marks a threshold for increased risk of later dependence, with selection of cannabis in preference to alcohol possibly indicating an early addiction process. [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by druid on April 09, 2003 at 23:19:20 PT ekim Here is a study about cannabis and alcohol. I am an alcoholic that uses cannabis to control my addiction. Results Of 1601 young adults, 115 met criteria for cannabis dependence. Male gender (OR=2.6, P http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/182/4/330 [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by freedom fighter on April 09, 2003 at 22:56:58 PT lehder, tappin my cane! I'll second the motion..I have nothing much to add to your comment except for one thing...It's just one word.death..Anarchy seems a sweet air to breath... If there's no addiction in this world, the earth, by it's own motion will cease to move.. and it will blow up within. pazff [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by observer on April 09, 2003 at 21:26:26 PT Competing Pleasures NIDA: ''Dopamine is known to increase in levels during addictive behaviors, such as eating, taking drugs or having sex. Experiments revealed the brain releases the substance before as well as during pleasurable acts.''''We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed.'' -- 1984, George Orwell breaking drug news, 400 items a day, updated constantly [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by ekim on April 09, 2003 at 19:38:33 PT Ethan any studies getting off alcohol The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has implicated drug and alcohol overuse in the death of more than 120,000 Americans each year and in an annual bill totaling more than $294 billion in health care, lost productivity and other related costs.while cannabis has never caused a single death -- seems that med use of this herb would be of utmost importance."Identifying signaling mechanisms that drive drug-taking provides potential targets for therapeutic intervention."is there any data on those that have stopped using alcohol and use cannabis too do it. could not this study show using cannabis lessens the desire to use alcohol or someother activity that the person wishes to decrease. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by lombar on April 09, 2003 at 15:05:24 PT comment and ... "Due to a lack of standardized classification methods, **global addiction statistics are hard to come by**, but officials attest to their epidemic proportions"Yeah and who's responsible for that?I was digging thru my old drafts that never got sent and I do not know where I was going to send this but I thought I publish the comment anyway:"Why does the government continue to treat them as two separate issues?" (tobacco and cannabis)Simply because one produces thousands of corpses per year who were never subject to criminal sanctions for killing themselves and the other produces thousands of criminals per year with no measurable effect on usage patterns. One has a marked psychoactive effect and the other is just horribly addictive.I notice there is no mention of tobacco in the above article... [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by Lehder on April 09, 2003 at 14:52:28 PT addiction problem solved It's not about Marijuana or Constitution or Law or Crime. The problem is in the natural function and structure of the brain, so this ludicrous Nazi "research" would have us believe: people take drugs because of God's sloppiness in designing the brain over four thousand years ago. But then God wasn't a scientist. Just as the Nazi eugenics experts of the last century, American doctors, with powerful chemicals and wires hooked to your head, will create a new and better race, men and women of moral clarity, soldiers all of perfect loyalty. And if the wires and chemicals don't work according to theory then there are always more prisons. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by FoM on April 09, 2003 at 13:52:22 PT Virgil That was very nice to read. I do understand. These times are the strangest of times. It seems like we can be up and then down in a flash. I don't like feeling that way. I like more normlcy in my life and I know others must feel the same way too. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by Virgil on April 09, 2003 at 13:45:08 PT FoM Some America this turned out to be, Aye? America was all about being able to smoke a joint. There could not be anything more American than smoking a joint. Apple pie, mom, and baseball are mindless slogans used in advertising and propaganda. A joint is the real thing. Those damned French should have lady liberty holding a pipe in the air capable of some ceremonial fires. But no. Those stupid French just thought if they showed a torch, you could furnish your own pipe and have your own ceremony. This ain't America. It is antiAmerica. I could be having one bithin good time, have more money, been more traveled, and not have to overcome a wasteland of blissfully ignorant people and really give the plutocracy some real hell in their takeover of Plantation Earth if those effing french would have known the quintessential example of liberty and had Lady Liberty with a pipe with FOM on it for Freedom of Mind.I wish the Canadians would do some high pressure compacting and make a Sativa Lady to promote free thinking. Something made of pure hash, sculpted, cast, or compacted made for the Canadian Freedom of Mind that is coming and suited for the community hookah at the coffeehouse with Freedom Doughnuts made of hemp flour and kind bud.You know what I wish. I wish someone would make a small thin hemp paper about 4 inches long and maybe 1.5 inches wide with the US Constitution on printed on it and a glue strip on one side so it could be posted on public bathrooms and sign post and every frigging where. Burn the damn thing. No one seems to care what happens to the Constitution. A lot of things suck about what is going on now, but we all know it really sucks when you screw with the quintessential expression of American ideals. Blame the French. Burn the Constitution. Kick a can. Badmouth the Great Dickhead. I don't care. All I want is my Sativa Lady and a Freedom Doughnut. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by 420toker on April 09, 2003 at 13:33:23 PT how true Go to canada or europe and look at the lifestyle, I was astounded to find very few overweight people in BC. On a side note I also noticed fewer screaming children and a more upscale adult dining experience with smaller portions and more effort on the presentation of food. This was evedent throughout the island (Victoria). The dining experience also took on a more laid back feel with and expected conversation time of over an hour. Contrast with Texas and our varios feedbag resturants designed more for todlers who need pretty colors than adults who want an upscale dining experience at a low price.Chili's, Bennagins, applebees, ruby tuesdays, etc. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by druid on April 09, 2003 at 13:17:12 PT Virgil Thanks :) [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Virgil on April 09, 2003 at 13:04:49 PT Druid, they are different but related both studies come out of Chapel Hill and are related to addiction issues. The yahoo story says that study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and others and this article says its study was by NIDA. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by druid on April 09, 2003 at 12:52:15 PT Virgil Isn't the yahoo article about human a enzyme that "detoxifies a variety of small, foreign molecules" and this article about measuring the sudden spike in dopamine before and after a "fix"?I don't see how the two are related except both lead to possible treatments of heroin and cocain addiction. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on April 09, 2003 at 12:45:01 PT My My My My Well it seems that between the war and enzymes and addiction and on and on the only thing that comes to mind is!There coming to take me away ha haThere coming to take me away ho hoTo the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time!PS: I'm just blowing off some steam don't mind me. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on April 09, 2003 at 12:36:44 PT Laughing at this It's so funny to see how American society grapples with its problems. Half the people in this country are overweight and never exercise. Do you think the answer is figuring out which chemical in the brain makes you reach for another doughnut, chocolate, or bong hit? The anwer needs no research. We need more discipline around eating and exercise! We need to incorporate diet and fitness into our culture. We're replacing any sort of human culture or religion or family tradition with a culture of blind greed and materialism. Today's health problems are the result of a generations of people brainwashed by commercials from infancy to get more, more, MORE of everything!This sort of research just seems absurd to me. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Virgil on April 09, 2003 at 12:30:44 PT yahoo covered the story The yahoo article seems more in depth to me- http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030408/chtu015_1.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on April 09, 2003 at 12:21:38 PT Just a Comment Maybe this is to be expected because it always seems to happen when the world is involved in other issues but these articles bring to mind the old expression it's all in your mind. I wish the war against Cannabis was something that was only in my mind. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on April 09, 2003 at 12:17:55 PT From The New Scientist.com Cocaine Addicts Get a High Before The Hit NewScientist.com news service Cocaine addicts may get spikes in a brain chemical associated with a high at the mere anticipation of a "hit", suggests a new study in rats.US researchers found that dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, surged before rats pressed a lever to release a dose of cocaine and even while they were waiting for the hard drug to be delivered.Dopamine is known to peak during addictive behaviours like drug taking, eating and sex, but this is the first study to demonstrate an increase before the actual event. The finding could help understand why recovering drug addicts relapse, say the researchers. Complete Article: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993612 [ Post Comment ] Post Comment