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| Addiction Biology (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Isn’t addiction a complex psychological and social phenomenon that requires psychological and social treatments? The answer to both questions is “yes.”
Even though psychological and social factors predominate in the presentation and diagnosis of addiction, the disease is at its core biological: changes that a physical substance (drug) causes in vulnerable body tissue (brain). Today’s treatments do not effectively control the biology of addiction, leaving the addicted individual with a dramatically altered limbic system. He or she must then work against powerful biological forces to recover from addiction; those who succeed often do so only after many attempts, and many do not succeed.
While a medication that counters the powerful biological forces of addiction is essential, it will not be a “magic bullet.” People in recovery from addiction will always need support and rehabilitation to rebuild their lives. Presumably, effective psychosocial treatments for addiction work by causing changes in the brain, perhaps even some of the same changes that will be produced by effective medications. While very little information is currently available on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying psychosocial treatments, this is a topic of great interest.
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