Drug addicts have inherited abnormalities in some parts of the brain which interfere with impulse control, said a British study published in the United States on Thursday.
Previous research has pointed to these differences, but it was unclear if they resulted from the ravages of addiction or if they were there beforehand to predispose a person to drug abuse.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge compared the brains of addicts to their non-addicted siblings as well as to healthy, unrelated volunteers and found that the siblings shared many of the same weaknesses in their brains.
That indicates that the brain vulnerabilities had a family origin, though somehow the siblings of addicts -- either due to environmental factors or other differences in brain structure -- were able to resist addiction.
This is really not too surprising. Some people get addicted extremely easily; other people do not. As the previous posting points out, substance abusers have high rates of violent crime as well. Is it the addiction that does it? Is it caused by inhibition reduction? Perhaps there is an impulse control problem which is aggravated by intoxication.
I've seen claims elsewhere (from an MD who appears to be knowledgeable) that alcoholism can run in families.
ReplyDeleteThis may be more evidence along those lines.
Without question: alcoholism and mental illness have significant genetic components.
ReplyDelete