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Tag: gene

  • Shame on me – Stigma and addiction in treatment

    I keep hearing that back in the old days of addiction treatment, shame was the main motivating factor used by rehab counselors. Everyone admits that it proved to be a horrible motivator. It simply didn’t work! With all the advances in research into addiction, that must have changed, right? I don’t think so. I see…

  • Why the addiction-brain connection has to be part of the addiction treatment picture

    Dr. Dodes recent article, apparently trying to blow up the myth of addiction as a neurophysiological disorder, sounded persuasive, although its underpinning was oversimplified and it’s understanding of the brain-science involved in addiction, and other associated mental health disorders, was lacking. Hopefully, by presenting a more complete picture of the evidence for a brain-aspect to…

  • The alcoholism gene? That’s quite a long story!

    If you were trying to find something to blame alcoholism on, genetics would be a good place to start: As much as 50-60% of the risk of becoming an alcoholic is determined by a person’s genes (1). We’ve discussed the genetics of addiction in general as they relate to other condition like ADHD, depression, and…

  • Nicotine addiction and genetics – It’s the little things that matter in smoking addiction

    We’ve known for a while that genes play a role in addiction in general and that nicotine is addictive at least in part because it activates receptors for a chemical called Acetylcholine (ACh) that are found all over the brain and body. Nevertheless, finding the specific mechanism for the genetic predisposition has been difficult. Some…

  • Addiction is a disorder of control, not choice – A response to Heyman’s book

    I was working on the first chapter of my book today and the issue of choice plays a prominent part in it. I’m a little pissed at Dr. Heyman, whose name sounds like something a stoner might say, about his book, “Addiction – A disorder of choice”. The thing is that at its most basic,…

  • About addiction: Genetics, sugar, drinking, and more.

    These are some useful articles about addiction I’ve found online. While they cover some topics we’ve discussed on here, I think it’s always better to be more educated! From Addiction Recovery Basics – Personality Vs. Genetics From Beating Addictions – A little Q & A about sugar addiction From Breaking the Cycles – A new…