Treatment on a plate - A dietary approach to treating addiction seems worth investigating

PEOPLE are programmed for addiction. Their brains are designed so that actions vital for propagating their genes—such as eating and having sex—are highly rewarding. Those reward pathways can, however, be subverted by external chemicals (in other words, drugs) and by certain sorts of behaviour such as gambling.

In recent years, neuroscientists have begun to understand how these reward pathways work and, in particular, the role played by message-carrying molecules called neurotransmitters. These molecules, notably serotonin, dopamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), hop between nerve cells, carrying signals as they go. Some drugs mimic their actions. Others enhance them. Either way, the body tends, as a result, to give up making them. At that point the person needs the drug as a substitute for the missing transmitter. In other words, he is an addict.

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Brain Center May Link Addiction, Mental Illness

Developmental problems involving a walnut-shaped part of the brain called the amygdala -- linked to fear, anxiety and other emotions -- may explain why mental illness and addiction often appear together, researchers say.

Many kinds of addiction -- such as those for alcohol, drugs and nicotine -- occur in people with various kinds of mental illness, including depression, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders, according to background information in an American Psychological Association news release about the Indiana University study.

Two to five of every 10 anxious or depressed people, and four to eight of every 10 people with schizophrenia, biopolar disorder or antisocial personality, also have some form of addiction, according to epidemiological data.

In this study, published in the December issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, the researchers compared the behavior of adult rats whose amygdalas were surgically damaged in infancy and adult rats with intact amygdalas.

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