Up top we should note that there are many different kinds of addiction, and many different kinds of people, and many complicated and contradictory theories re: addictionโs psychological/physiological mechanisms.
So think of this weekโs Giz Asksโwherein we investigate whether there could ever be a cure for addictionโas a kind of thought experiment. Below, our experts weigh in.
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George Koob, Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism:
Probably notโbut itโs possible.
Drug addiction involves changes in the brain, and those changes are in brain circuits that we use for everyday lifeโfor seeking food and shelter, procreating our species, avoiding things that are aversive and painful, and so on.
When drugs initially tap into those systems, they make you feel really good. And then thereโs payback. Thereโs no free ride in the brain….ย That makes curing addiction a challenge, because you have to get those circuits back into homeostasisโi.e., a normal range of functioningโand thatโs not always so easy, because sometimes, the changes are actually permanent…. You canโt grow back circuits that youโve killed. What you can do is, in a sense, rewire things, by strengthening other circuits.
