Will The Real Cause Of Addiction Please Stand Up?

I just got a comment on my piece Capitalism, Pain, and The War On Drugs. My commenter is long on ignorance and short on facts.

First of all, in order to prove that drug addiction is inherited, one would need to identify the gene responsible. So much for that theory. My opinion: bullshit.

Some of the genes have been identified. You can read about them: Genetic Discrimination Note that I wrote that in Dec of '05. We know more now than we did then.

In addition the NIDA says Addiction Is A Genetic Disease.

So right away you are on weak ground. i.e. the government says you are full of it.

Second, just because people with problems tend to have drug problems says nothing about drugs themselves.Logic is not commutative, unless one is willing to assume that cause and effect are interchangeable. Then again, conservatives often rely on religious mysticism for intellectual guidance, to the chagrin of physicists around the globe.

Funny thing is, I was a physics major in college and spent a major portion of my career as an aerospace engineer. One step short of rocket scientist.

The NIDA says that besides genetics there is some kind of envionmental trigger. I believe that trigger is trauma. I cover that in Heroin.

Third, PTSD is such a novel concept that there is no reliable information about it, never mind a genetic test for susceptibility to it.

PTSD is not a nebulous concept. It is about fear memories. Here is a study on the subject: Fear memories, the amygdala, and the CB1 receptor done at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

Further we have research by the discoverer of the CB1 receptor, Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, that looks at PTSD and the Endocannabinoid System and explains the applicability of the mice studies to humans.

In addition a genetic test is being developed for PTSD by the very same discoverer of the CB1 receptor: A Test For PTSD.

Fourth, most 'graduates' of AA go on to become responsible social drinkers. Some day I must find out how they managed to alter their genomes. Did asking Christ into their hearts do it?

Well no. It is actually explained by Fear memories, the amygdala, and the CB1 receptor. Fear memories decay over time. The rate of decay is variable and is genetically dependent. No need to go to AA meetings or asking Christ into your heart. Just wait and try to keep youself comfortable while the fear memories decline. (Any way I'm pretty much Jewish and claim that you only need to go to the head man, but that is a minor theological dispute.) The science is out there for any one truly interested in the subject. It amazes me that with research so easy in these internet days so few people avail themselves of the opportunity.

Finally our friendly commenter finishes with:

But then, I am just a radical lefty liberal, with no credibility, so go ahead and ignore me.

I will assume you are correct in your self description - radical lefty liberal. I also agree that you have no credibility. However, you are not being ignored. Just ridiculed for you ignorance. As usual for a lefty you are weak on science, strong on opinion, and unwilling to put your name (not even a pseudonym) next to your opinions. My condolences.

Father of PTSD diagnosis dies

PTSD Combat has an article about the inventor of the PTSD diagnosis.

The man whom I would call the 'Father of Modern Combat PTSD Diagnosis' is dead at the age of 80. Dr. Leonard Neff was a WWII veteran and psychiatrist who'd begun working with Vietnam veterans in the early 1970's. He rose to prominence in dramatic fashion when, in 1974, he persuaded a returning veteran who'd taken hostages to release them following 3 hours of negotiations. The event raised public awareness of the plight of many soldiers returning from Vietnam; it also led Neff to push to include a definition of what today is known as posttraumatic stress disorder to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Go and read it all with links to more. As you know combat PTSD has been one of my interests. I have written a few piecies about it:

Aftermath

The Soldiers Disease

Cannabis is the Best Medicine

PTSD and the Endocannabinoid System


PTSD, Veterans, War, Disabled Veterans, Drug War, Cannabis, Endocannabinoid, Combat Stress, Soldiers Disease

PTSD and the Endocannabinoid System

An interesting interview with Organic Chemist Dr. Raphael Mechoulam about cannibinoids and the brain. Dr. Mechoulam was the first to synthesize THC.

There's something called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is due to upsetting memories that stay around too long. Normally, when there is trauma people slowly forget it. This is true for humans and it's true for animals. But if the animals do not have an endocannabinoid system, they do not forget bad memories, and this was shown in a paper by a German-Italian group. In collaboration with the Canadian group, we have done some work on that, and in a different model we have seen the same thing. So I expect that the endocannabinoid system is not in good shape in those post-traumatic patients, and chances are that it will work in treating them. We are just about to develop a treatment. People that have PTSD claim that the only thing that helps them is smoking marijuana, so chances are that cannabinoid treatment may help them.

Which is something I've been saying for the last four years. In case you missed it here is my journey. Here is a study on mice lacking the CB1 system in at least part of the brain and how that affects the decay of fear memories.

There are lots more medical uses for marijuana and its extracts than PTSD. Read the whole interview to learn more.

Update 18 Feb 2011 0628z:

The "mice" link is now no longer functional try this one.

Also the Dr. Raphael Mechoulam link is dead try this one.

A personalreport with medical evidence by some one tortured in a Turkish prison.

Child Abuse and Military Trauma

Japan Times report

New Scientist report

Medical News Today report

Cannabis and PTSD - a discussion of the medical literature with extracts from the literature.

Drug War, Endocannabinoid, Cannabinoid, Marijuana, Raphael Mechoulam, Addiction, PTSD, CB1, Trauma

Is Addiction Real?

Bill Quick at The Daily Pundit has posted my latest article on the subject of addiction. Bill also has a link to this related article at LGF. I will post the full article that Bill has put up later today or early tomorrow.

And thanks Bill for the exposure.

==========

Is addiction real? A very interesting question.I think there is an answer to that question. Obviously I think the answer is not in the affirmative. Why? Well there in lies a tale.

For me it started with Dr. Lonnie Shavelson. In July of 2001 I read a review of his book "Hooked" and learned some things. One of the things I learned was that in his sample of female heroin users 70% were sexually molested before they started heroin use. He also found that male heroin users were 25 to 50 times more likely to have been sexually abused than the general population. I wrote an article on the subject. Heroin. What I suggested in that article was that a large number of heroin users were taking the drug for relief from severe PTSD.

The next piece of the puzzle came to me in November of 2002 when I read this report done on the CB1 receptor in mice. A cannabinoid receptor also found in human brains. The report showed that fear memories which seem to be mediated by the CB1 receptors decay at different rates depending on genetics. I wrote this review of that report: Addiction or Self Medication? What I figured out from the report is that the reason drugs are addictive (long term use) for some and not others was based on genetics. A very big key to the puzzle of addiction. In the past the fact that some get addicted and others do not was ascribed to the "addictive personality". Now no one could tell you what an addictive personality was. It couldn't be defined. So in fact it was mumbo jumbo. I now had another piece of the puzzle. However twin studies showed that genetics only accounted for 50% of the cause for addiction. What was the other 50%? Pretty obvious from Dr. Shavelson's report. Trauma.

Well that lead me to look deeper into the genetics aspect. I wrote an article Genetic Discrimination which goes into some of the genes involved in tobacco addiction and marijuana addiction. It turns out that the genes involved in tobacco addiction vary by race. It also turns out that some people do not produce enough cannabinoids to feel normal. Again the idea that genetics only accounts for 50% of addiction (in this case to pot) comes up.

Looking further into the opiate question I looked into endorphins, the body's natural heroin, and how the body produces them. Sex, food, and exercise. And of course we know about sex junkis, food junkies, and even exercise junkies.I wrote about that in an article called Big Mac Heroin Attack.

What about stimulants? Stimulants seem to work well for people with ADD/ADHD problems. Of course this has got the pharma folks in full hue and cry mode against street drugs.

The War On Unpatented Drugs

To sum up:
1. We now kow that severe PTSD may be the cause of 70% or more of heroin use.
2. We know that there is a genetic connection.
3. We know there is a trauma connection.
4. We know that stimulants treat a different class of problems than opiates

What I have done is come up with a hypothesis that fits the facts. Why some people and not others are susceptable to addiction (as opposed to habituation which we know how to treat: Detox). Surprisingly this is a Well Known Secret in some segments of the medical community.

What we do not know is the true extent of the problem. Exactly how much of what we call addiction is due trauma/genetics? We don't know the answer because the problem is not being studied in any systematic way. We have the most information on pot/PTSD and stimulants/ADD-ADHD. A very few studies on opiates. Most studies so far have been anecdotal rather than statistical. The reason in my opinion is that there is no research money out there to make a statistical study of the self medication hypothesis. Such studies would be very expensive if they included DNA work ups and extensive interviews.

Self medication appears to be a very lage part of our "addiction" problem. In fact we may not even have an addiction problem. What we may have is seriously undertreated population with various mental problems caused by imbalances in the brain.

What is needed is more research. The only way we will get that any time soon is to pressure the government.Obviously the drug companies have no interest in finding out what addiction is because it will impact their bottom line if people take drugs for Problem Solving. In fact there are a lot of actors in this farce who would stand to lose big if such a study showed what I expect it might. The only folks to be benefitted would be "addicts". And they don't have much of a lobby in Washington.

I have also written about soldiers/police and PTSD here:

The Soldiers Disease
Aftermath
A test for PTSD
Police and PTSD

And if you go to my sidebar I have lots of other links to articles on the subject.