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Foxs-In-A-Trenchcoat t1_j80pttp wrote

Reply to comment by ctorg in Scientists have identified the brain structures responsible for compulsive drug-seeking behaviours due to repeated use of cocaine by identificating the structures involved and neural pathways activated with repeated exposure to the drug by giuliomagnifico

But this could be a trailhead for finding a treatment.

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ctorg t1_j80rkz1 wrote

It could be. If further studies prove that the activation causes the behavior. On the other hand, if the behavior causes the activation or the brain region activation and the drug-seeking-behavior are both caused by some third, unmeasured variable, then this has no treatment value.

As I said, correlations are valuable. Mis-representing them is not.

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Foxs-In-A-Trenchcoat t1_j80ru2q wrote

If it's any part of the reward system it could be a really good target.

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ctorg t1_j80tfhf wrote

The nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex (the structures identified in this study) have been shown to be involved in reward and drug addiction for decades, but we still don't have treatments.

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JKyyy_ t1_j8199uz wrote

I am writing my thesis on this exact topic currently and I wanted to say this exact thing. We roughly know that dopamine is released in these areas as a response to reward/reward predicting stimuli and that dopamine is also involved in a lot of regulatory activity. We know it affects cordination, motivation, emotion regulation etc etc. Knowing this and then thinking about what is the best way to fix a dopamine misfunction (If there is one?, May not be the case) are two seperate things ESPECIALLY, when this system responds to SOOO many different forms of stimuli. Currently I would say a holistic approach (Lifestyle changes, therapy, maybe a medicinal treatment aswell (ie. Methylphenidate (Ritalin) seem to be potential approaches to look at). Deciding what is the best and why and for who is really hard

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ConsciousCr8or t1_j82k3cg wrote

Exactly! THAT was the first thing that came to mind when I read this post! This discovery could be a really big deal for addicts one day. Exciting research if you ask me!

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