New Breakthrough in Addiction Treatment Focuses on Disease's Effect on Brain

Who would have guessed some of the newest options for treating the brain in one’s addiction would be medications already in use for things like narcolepsy or antidepressants? An article published by the Associated Press explains how drugs already in use might affect the brain’s addiction to certain substances, from cocaine to methamphetamines.

Through the use of drugs already in use for things like depression, alcoholism (did you know there’s already a shot out there that eases the difficulty in overcoming this addiction?) can block the effects of other drugs on the brain, effectively cutting out the need to use. Although these are trial tests to see if it really works, this step forward offers hope for millions struggling with addictions, the families caught in the crossfire and the economy stuck helping those whose use takes a toll on their health.

The article made an interesting analogy for the new discovery and addiction, saying “Think of it as if the brain were an orchestra, its circuits the violins and the piano and the brass section, all smoothly starting and stopping their parts on cue.”

The director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse Dr. Nora Volkow went on to explain: “That orchestration is disrupted in psychiatric illness,”. “There’s not a psychiatric disease that owns one particular circuit.” This is one of the most promising breakthroughs in the search for what has been thought of as a mythical goal: a cure for addiction.

This being said, most will have to wait for these drugs to be prescribed in addiction treatment. Until this clinical trial becomes active in the public, the best we can do is to work the steps, use the help available and seek aftercare to help in the motivation and direction of managing recovery on one’s own.

Tags: addiction, addiction recovery, addiction treatment, cocaine addiction, methamphetamine