ADDICTION

Addiction can be defined as certain obsession with certain substances which can be harmful and detrimental also. It goes beyond the will power of the human to control and over power its desire. This may include addiction with alcohol, tobacco, heroin and other drugs. When the addict consumes these harmful substances, it crosses the bold brain barrier and temporarily alters the chemical balance of the brain. Which cause some pleasure and craving for more.

A person is said to be addict of something when he is involved in it inspire of the negative consequeses connected with it. But science defines addiction as acute, neurobiological disease where psychosocial elements and environmental factors are also involved

ADDICTION CAN BE BROADLY CLASSIFIED INTO SUBSTANCE ADDICTION AND BEHAVIORAL ADDITION.

A person is said to be substance addicted when he persists in use of alcohol or other drugs despite problems related to use of the substance, substance dependence may be diagnosed.
Obsessive and frequent use may result in tolerance to the effect of the drug and when the use is discontinued or lowered usually withdrawal symptoms occurs.

Addiction is also psychological in nature which creates dependency things as gambling, food, sex, pornography, computers, internet, work, , video games ,watching TV or certain types of non-pornographic videos, spiritual obsession, shopping. And of course these days we can line it up with face book also.

DRUGS CAUSING ADDICTION AND THEIR ACTIVE POTENTIAL

Drugs known to cause addiction include stimulants like Amphetamine and methamphetamine, Cocaine Caffeine, Sedatives and hypnotics whose withdrawal effects may also cause death, Opiate and upload analgesics. The drugs can be both legal and illegal.

The addictive potential of a drug varies from substance to substance, and from individual to individual. Dose, frequency, pharmacokinetics of a particular substance, route of administration, and time are critical factors for developing a drug addiction.

SALT APPETITE IS LINKED TO DRUG ADDICTION

A team of Duke University Medical Center and Australian scientists has found that salt appetite is linked to drug addiction. when salt is taken, in a certain part of the brain called hypothalamus that controls the equilibrium of salt, water, energy, reproduction and other rhythms genes are getting activated and it the same set of genes that are trigged while consuming cocaine or opiate which nothing but heroin addiction.

"We were surprised and gratified to see that blocking addiction-related pathways could powerfully interfere with sodium appetite," said co-lead author Wolfgang Liedtke, M.D., Ph.D., an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Neurobiology at Duke University. ".

The research has a far reaching medical impact and also could help in understanding addictions and the detrimental consequences when obesity-generating foods are overloaded with Sodium. The work opens new pathways of experimental approach to addiction.

The study was the first to examine gene regulation in the hypothalamus of the brain for salt appetite. For these two techniques was to induce innate behavior in mice. Firstly they withheld salt for a while combined with a diuretic and they also used the stress hormone ACTH to increase salt needs.

Experiment conducted depicted that those genes were "turned on" or "turned off" in salt appetite. These patterns were often seen reversed within ten minutes of the animals' drinking salt solution, well before any significant salt could be absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream.

The team found out that when an animal indulges in a heavy sodium appetite a certain region of the hypothalamus seems to become vulnerable to the effects of dopamine, which is the brain's internal currency for reward. This shows a state of inbreed need that has to be satisfied when the sodium is depleted which is signaled by the hypothalamus of the brain .This concept is proved by their finding that the local actions of dopamine on a sub-region of the hypothalamus are critical for the animals' instinctive behavior.

A new study has also shown that Targeted brain stimulation increases cigarette cravings which may ultimately lead to new treatments that reverse these effects. It is well known that when a person stops or desires to leave the habit of smoking he just gets provoked or his cravings start again when he just sees someone else smoke. There many deaccdition centers which practices as hypnosis and acupuncture and effective pharmacologic treatments such as nicotine patches. But most of the cases also fail in that, but Scientists have found that these diverse approaches might work through a common mechanism -- the reduction of activity in a brain circuit that is responsible for cigarette craving.

About Author / Additional Info: