Looking under the hood: How brain science informs addiction treatment

As a neuroscientist I have been trained to think in a certain way, almost like a car mechanic, who “looks under the hood” at the brains of laboratory rats exposed to drugs. If we can figure out exactly which genes, proteins, brain regions, and neural connections go awry in substance use disorders (SUDs), we can fix those “broken” parts in the brain and design better long-term approaches to addiction treatment. While there is great promise in this approach, it’s not so easy to get under the hood of people who desperately need help with a SUD. It’s very different from working with lab rats. And it can take a long time — often decades — between discovering a way to redirect the addicted brain and an approved treatment. Neuroscientists and practicing clinicians need to be partners in advancing treatment for SUDs Obviously medical and mental health clinicians treat SUDs from the perspective of patient care. They are presented with real people who have very real, very immediate needs. These individuals have often lost their families, their jobs, and their basic health. Their lives may be in jeopardy because of the risk of overdose. The goal is to first detoxify the patientsork with them, through initial recovery from the crisis and beyond, to prevent relapse. This is critically important work, but so is searching for potentially permanent solutions to SUDs. And the place to start is the brain. Over the past 30-plus years, basic laboratory and translational research ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Addiction Behavioral Health Brain and cognitive health substance use disorders (SUDs) Source Type: blogs