Sober Living by the Sea Blog

Those of you who were ever clients at SLBTS will remember the phenomenal lectures given by the excellent Dr. Kevin McCauley about the disease model of addiction.

Kevin McCauley's lectures help our clients understand the medical phenomenon that is affecting them and causing them to experience craving because of the surge of dopamine that their midbrain associates with using drugs or alcohol.

To anyone who remembers their addiction education at Sober Living by the Sea, it will come as no surprise that Researchers at Brookhaven Lab have shown that increasing the brain level of receptors for dopamine, a pleasure-related chemical, can reduce use of cocaine by 75 percent in rats trained to self-administer it. Earlier research by this team had similar findings for alcohol intake. Treatments that increase levels of these chemicals - dopamine D2 receptors -- may prove useful in treating addiction, according to the authors.

Yet more scientific progress in the treatment of addiction....

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_display.asp?prID=08-33

Labels: addiction as a disease, addiction research reduce cocain use, alcohol intake reduction, cocaine use, dopamine, receptors research