Memories and Addiction

snails/meth

A research study done drug addiction recently headed by Barbara Sorg from Washington State University expressed how some addictive drugs produce memories that are hard to forget, and that can even cause addicts to relapse.  The scientists described the discovery in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Having seen this drug-enhanced or “pathological” memory-making in action produced with the snails in the experiment, the scientists now want to know what is changing within an individual brain cell.  Scientists suggests that by disrupting the recollection of a drug-associated memory—a person one abuses drugs with, a place that one uses drugs at, for example—a therapeutic means may be able to break the connection between cues in the environment and the need for drugs. Sometimes these cues can be quite close to home—a family member or loved one.  There are many scientist at the National Institute of Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md hard at work to try to find medications to supplement therapy and having a program to follow.  With no approved medications on the market to specifically treat cocaine addiction, most treatment regimens rely of behavioral therapy. Often these therapies involve exposing addicts to cues that they associate with drug use—however without being under the influence of an illicit substance. Once a recovered addict encounters these cues back in the real world though, they often relapse. Everitt suggests using an NMDA-type glutamate receptor blocker in the clinic could improve that treatment.  Essentially scientists are researching methods to use a chemical that blocks the creation of memories, scientists have prevented rats from using cocaine and shown the strength of drug induced memories in snails after they had used meth. The hope is that doctors will one day be able to give humans some version of the chemical and stop addiction in its tracks.  However until these medications are thoroughly tested and approved by the FDA there is one method that works and has worked without fail and that is abstinence as well as adhering to a program of a spiritual nature.  The day that science and spirituality meet will be a time when more lives can be saved from the clenches of addiction.  The marriage between the two schools of thought will allow those who have a harder time finding the spirituality still find the treatment that they need and a different perspective.