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Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Tags Posts tagged with "Addiction"

Addiction

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Photo Taken In Oradea, Romania

A new study has identified how ketamine can combat difficult-to-treat depression.

New research has revealed the specific parts of the brain that ketamine affects when doctors use it to treat people with difficult-to-treat depression.

The study, which appears in the journal Translational Psychiatry, may open the door to new therapies in the treatment of depression.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the United States, about 7.6% of people over the age of 12 have depression during any 2-week period. The CDC describe depression as a sad mood that extends for a long period and affects a person’s ability to live a normal life.

When severe, depression can have a serious negative effect on a person’s life, sometimes leading to suicidal thoughts.

Experts do not fully understand why some people experience depression, although the National Institute of Mental Health suggest that genetic, environmental, biological, and psychological factors may play a role. It is treatable with medication, psychological therapy, or a combination of the two.

Previous research has made it clear that the drug ketamine can be an effective antidepressant, and some scientists have proposed it as a treatment in cases of depression that do not respond to conventional treatments.

However, precisely how and why ketamine functions as an antidepressant is less clear. As a consequence, the authors of the present study wanted to identify precisely what effects ketamine has on the brain of a person who is not responding to conventional treatments. They hope that this research may lead to better treatment options for these individuals.

Suicide prevention

If you know someone at immediate risk of self-harm, suicide, or hurting another person:

  • Ask the tough question: “Are you considering suicide?”
  • Listen to the person without judgment.
  • Call 911 or the local emergency number, or text TALK to 741741 to communicate with a trained crisis counselor.
  • Stay with the person until professional help arrives.
  • Try to remove any weapons, medications, or other potentially harmful objects.

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, a prevention hotline can help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours per day at 800-273-8255. During a crisis, people who are hard of hearing can call 800-799-4889.

Looking at ketamine’s effect in the brain

To do this, the researchers gave participants doses of ketamine that were low enough not to have an anesthetic effect and then took images of their brains using a positron emission tomography (PET) camera.

According to the study’s first author, Dr. Mikael Tiger, a researcher at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet in Solna, Sweden, “In this, the largest PET study of its kind in the world, we wanted to look at not only the magnitude of the effect but also if ketamine acts via serotonin 1B receptors.”

“We and another research team were previously able to show a low density of serotonin 1B receptors in the brains of people with depression.”

By using a radioactive marker that binds to a person’s serotonin receptors, the PET images could highlight what effects ketamine was having on these receptors, which play a crucial role in depression by modulating the amount of serotonin that a person receives. Experts believe that low levels of serotonin correlate to more severe experiences of depression.

The authors of the study recruited people through internet advertising. After receiving 832 volunteers, the authors reduced this number to 30 to make sure that the participants were as relevant to the study as possible.

Other than having major depressive disorder (MDD), the participants were healthy. They had not responded to previous treatment for MDD.

The researchers split the participants into two groups, treating 20 people with ketamine and the other 10 with a placebo.

The study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, meaning that neither the doctors nor the participants initially knew to which group each participant belonged.

Prior to the treatment, the researchers took a baseline scan of the participants’ brains. They took a second scan in the days following the treatment.

For the second phase of the study, 29 of the participants agreed to take ketamine twice a week for 2 weeks.

Serotonin reduced, dopamine increased

Using a rating scale for depression, the researchers found that 70% of the participants in the second phase of the study responded to the ketamine.

Furthermore, after analyzing the PET images, the authors found that the ketamine was affecting the participants’ brains in a previously unidentified manner, reducing the output of serotonin but increasing the output of dopamine, which is also important for mood regulation.

According to the last author of the study, Dr. Johan Lundberg, research group leader at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, “We show for the first time that ketamine treatment increases the number of serotonin 1B receptors.”

“Ketamine has the advantage of being very rapid-acting, but at the same time, it is a narcotic-classed drug that can lead to addiction. So it’ll be interesting to examine in future studies if this receptor can be a target for new, effective drugs that don’t have the adverse effects of ketamine.”

– Dr. Johan Lundberg

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When people say that the human mind and the brain are two sides of a coin, they are not far from the truth. As an organ, the brain facilitates the functions of the mind. And we know that whatsoever alters the function of the brain affects the mind.

Also, the chemicals that facilitate human behaviour through the brain and allied structures are regulated by a physiological system that does not require supply from extraneous sources, except when drugs are prescribed to treat an ailment.

Every society has had to grapple with the fundamental human need for meaning, pleasure and motivation. I think that what separates us from animals is that our brain, which facilitates the functions of the mind, also has sophisticated needs.

In adolescence, the mind acquires an abstractive appetite, with hypothetic- deductive reasoning when ideas are tested in the environment and feedbacks are analysed for the purpose of modifying human behaviour. This exercise is not without its frustrations, which is the most outstanding challenge across life span.

When we have adjusted to the rhythm of life, the biological clock helps to make available appropriate chemicals from the innate store to fulfil these psychic needs. When there is an experience of low feeling, human beings mount coping strategies that could be mystical or religious or the abuse of drugs.  We have various brands of alcohol and other substances capable of modulating the brain to give a transient experience of fulfilment, release and energy.

Some drugs are obtained over the counter and misused, especially for sleep and for temporary escape from the challenges of life.  Marijuana is one of the most popular and the age of initiation is as low as nine years.

Other local substances in the rural areas, which are not in the NDLEA gazette of abused drugs, can excite the normal functions of the brain just like some slow it down with various experiences in the mind. These substances, no doubt, can induce a temporary feeling of energy and fulfilment at the risk of causing severe damage to the same organ that is vital to our existence and survival.

They are also capable of causing mental illness, even when there is no such history in the family.

Drug addiction is the factor that lures a certain percentage of our youths into armed robbery and wild adventures. A good number of early school drop-outs can be associated with drug addiction.  A reasonable number of HIV-AIDS cases are due to acts of sexual recklessness under the influence of these drugs.

Violence, whether political, religious or ethnic, is fuelled by drug abuse, especially marijuana, which makes their targets appear like ants. Routes of administration, especially when injected, can cause the infection of vital organs, just as HIV-AIDS infection can be spread through the sharing of needles.

Technically, any substance that impairs our judgment and renders us incapable of fulfilling our basic social roles to self, family and the society in general is dangerous.

Alcohol consumption is gradually becoming a big issue, especially in the context of our current socio- economic situation, one in which an increasing number of heads of families deposit a sizeable amount of their salaries at the beer parlour before thinking of school fees, house rents or medical bills. Such folks continue to drink even against their doctor’s advice.

A good number of car accidents are preventable if drivers can abstain from the use of drugs, especially alcohol. Some top-level government decisions are taken under the influence of drugs with attendant grave consequences for generations unborn. Marital conflicts with attendant physical assault are very common when a partner escapes into the use of drugs in coping with the marriage.

Parenting becomes impaired as children grow unsupervised and become vulnerable to pressure from their peers, which eventually links them with the drug culture.

Even as a reasonable amount of wealth is acquired, a child that is hooked on drugs will squander it to satisfy his craving. The challenge of drug addiction is that the victim will always require an increasing amount of the substance to stay ‘high’.

Prevention is the keyword and the most vulnerable period is adolescence, although some start in midlife or at some other stages in life. Parents need to be alert to abrupt changes in the behaviour of their children who may start withdrawing from family discussions, make new but strange friends, become more argumentative, come home late and disobey simple instructions.

Teachers can also watch out for drug groups and institute counselling as soon as possible.  Sound religious instruction as an adaptive coping mechanism for life challenges is indispensable.  There will always be a need for established cases to be referred to mental health experts because they will need immediate intervention as they can become very dangerous to self, family and society at large.

PUNCH.

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15-May-09 addiction photo-illustration. Photo by Keith Beaty.

People with an addiction do not have control over what they are doing, taking or using. Their addiction may reach a point at which it is harmful.

Addictions do not only include physical things we consume, such as drugs or alcohol, but may include virtually anything, such abstract things as gambling to seemingly harmless products, such as chocolate – in other words, addiction may refer to a substance dependence (e.g. drug addiction) or behavioral addiction (e.g. gambling addiction).

This article focuses mainly on addiction to physical substances.

In the past, addiction used to refer just to psychoactive substances that cross the blood-brain barrier, temporarily altering the chemical balance of the brain; this would include alcohol, tobacco and some drugs. A considerable number of psychologists, other health care professionals and lay people now insist that psychological dependency, as may be the case with gambling, sex, internet, work, exercise, etc. should also be counted as addictions, because they can also lead to feelings of guilt, shame, hopelessness, despair, failure, rejection, anxiety and/or humiliation.

When a person is addicted to something they cannot control how they use it, and become dependent on it to cope with daily life.
A habit may eventually develop into an addiction

Many of us can use substances or become engaged in activities without any significant problems. Some people, however, may experience damaging psychological and/or physical effects when their habit becomes an addiction.
Addictions and habits

With a habit you are in control of your choices, with an addiction you are not in control of your choices.

Addiction – there is a psychological/physical component; the person is unable to control the aspects of the addiction without help because of the mental or physical conditions involved.
Habit – it is done by choice. The person with the habit can choose to stop, and will subsequently stop successfully if they want to. The psychological/physical component is not an issue as it is with an addiction.

Addiction to substances or activities can sometimes lead to serious problems at home, work, school and socially.

The causes of addiction vary considerably, and are not often fully understood. They are generally caused by a combination of physical, mental, circumstantial and emotional factors.

Addiction, often referred to as dependency often leads to tolerance – the addicted person needs larger and more regular amounts of whatever they are addicted to in order to receive the same effect. Often, the initial reward is no longer felt, and the addiction continues because withdrawal is so unpleasant.

Addiction may include prescription medications

Most people think of illegal drugs when they hear the word “addiction”. However, prescription drug addiction is becoming a serious public health problem in the USA and many other nations. Prescription medication abuse was described as “an epidemic” by researchers from the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine in a study they reported on in November 2012.

The scientists explained that doctors today treat pain differently than they used to years ago. This change has led to an increase in prescription drug abuse.

In the USA in the 1990s – the decade of pain treatment – not only was there a change in medication, but also policy. Pain became the fifth vital sign doctors looked out for, along with respiratory rate, blood pressure, body temperature and pulse rate. Doctors’ offices today commonly have signs in their waiting rooms asking patients to rate their experience of physical pain from 1 to 10.

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