Post-mortem studies have noted a 23–51% reduction in MOR binding 143 in alcohol dependent individuals when compared with controls. Preclinical data suggests that nalmefene counters alcohol-induced dysregulations of the MOR/endorphin and the KOR/dynorphin system 141. Drugs that antagonize these receptors, including the licensed drug naltrexone have been found to attenuate alcohol seeking in rats and have been shown to clinically reduce alcohol consumption 144. Neuroimaging studies have also dramatically advanced our understanding of the brain’s response to alcohol and the neurochemical basis of alcohol dependence.
What part of the brain controls addiction?
Over the past 40 years, rigorous examination of brain function, structure, and attending factors through multidisciplinary research has helped identify the substrates of alcohol-related damage in the brain. These studies have elucidated the component processes of memory, problem solving, and cognitive control, as well as visuospatial, and motor processes and their interactions with cognitive control processes. These advancements also have allowed analysis of the course of brain structural changes through periods of drinking, abstinence, and relapse. There is a longstanding notion that alcohol has an interactive effect on the biological aging processes, whereby the brains of alcohol dependent individuals resemble those of chronologically older individuals who do not have alcohol dependence 32. Imaging studies have long found that the loss of grey matter volume as well as the disturbances to white matter microstructure typically seen in alcohol dependence are exacerbated with age 10,27,33,34,35,36,37,38. This phenomenon has also been investigated using the brain age paradigm, an approach that investigates healthy brain aging by estimating chronological age from neuroimaging data and examines the difference between an individual’s predicted and actual age 39.
Signs of Drug Addiction
- When drugs are consumed, they interfere with the brain’s normal communication system, disrupting the way neurons send, receive, and process signals through neurotransmitters.
- And higher alcohol use was also linked to changes in the microstructure of the corpus callosum, a thick bundle of nerve fibers that connect the two hemispheres of the brain and that is involved in allowing both sides of the brain to communicate effectively.
- Furthermore, the use of stigmatizing language, such as “junkie” and “addict” and getting “clean,” often creates barriers when it comes to accessing treatment.
Drug or alcohol use makes long-lasting changes to the brain – altering the way the brain functions by affecting the regions responsible for incentive, learning, memory, mood, and behavior. Substance drug addiction abuse can change both the chemistry of the brain and its physical structure. Although addiction causes substantial and sometimes lasting changes in brain chemistry and neural pathways, research and clinical interventions highlight the brain’s remarkable neuroplastic capacity. Treatments such as behavioral therapies, medications, and lifestyle modifications aim to restore neurotransmitter balance, enhance cognitive control, and rewire neural circuits. Early intervention, combined with ongoing support and healthy habits, can lead to significant recovery, reducing the risk of relapse.
Seeing your brain motivates you to follow a treatment plan.
With repeated drug use, the brain adapts to these changes, often reducing its sensitivity to neurotransmitters—a phenomenon called neuroplasticity. This leads to tolerance, where larger doses are needed to achieve the same effect, increasing the risk of dependence and addiction. Over time, these neurochemical disruptions can cause structural and functional changes in the brain, impairing decision-making, emotional regulation, and overall mental health. What is clear is that alcohol and cannabis do have some neurotoxic effects and that, at least to some degree, this damage is able to be reversed in a similar way that the brain is able to recover difference between drugs and alcohol from using other substances.