Neurobiology of Alcohol Dependence and
It’s Cycle of Substance Abuse Research suggests that each year in the United States, approximately 8.2 million people are dependent on alcohol as evaluated by the CAGE questionnaire for alcohol dependence (Kosten, T., & O'Connor, P. 2003). To examine alcohol dependence, this review will consider the following:
1. Neurobiology / Pharmacodynamics
2. Pharmacokinetics / various forms of use
3. Ways in which tolerance and withdrawal occur
4. Pharmacotherapy for treatment
Understanding the cycle of alcohol abuse highlights the complexity of alcohol dependence and, more specifically, emphasizes the problems with treatment of such.
Neurobiology/Pharmacodynamics
Alcohol research is aimed at understanding the neural …show more content…
Alcohol affects several neurotransmitters throughout the body, most prominently, those involved in stress and reward. The systems affected by this are dopamine systems, opioid systems, γ-aminobutyric acid systems, glutamate systems, and serotonin systems. Dopamine is the primary neurotransmitter involved in the reward pathway, which projects from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens. Alcohol enhances the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. Acute alcohol intoxication leads to an incentive motivation as the firing of dopamine is decreased during withdrawal leading to a desire to drink to fire dopamine once again. Endogenous opioids interact with opioid receptors leading to a sense of euphoria. Seeing that alcohol increases the release of such opioids, naturally produced in the body, it is speculated that the opioid system is the main contributing factor to the addictive properties of alcohol. The γ-aminobutyric acid system, also known as the GABA system, is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter within the brain (Gilpin, N., & Koob, G. 2008). As ethanol acts on the GABA-releasing neuron, this neurotransmitter is attributed to the sedative effects of alcohol. Glutamate is the brains major excitatory neurotransmitter. Alcohol inhibits glutamate activity in the brain leading again to sedative effects. The serotonin system is examined as it pertains to the link between serotonin depletion to …show more content…
There are currently three major drugs in testing to help reduce the risk of relapse and severity of alcohol dependence. Naltrexone is an opioid receptor antagonist that was approved by the FDA in 1994, which appears to reduce heavy drinking by weakening the rewarding effects of alcohol. It acts to reduce dopamine release in response to alcohol entering the system. With less dopamine the user feels less of an excitatory response towards alcohol use. Naltrexone also has a fairly wide margin of safety as no fatalities have been reported with naltrexone overdose, nor does it appear to reduce seizure threshold (De Sousa A.,
It’s Cycle of Substance Abuse Research suggests that each year in the United States, approximately 8.2 million people are dependent on alcohol as evaluated by the CAGE questionnaire for alcohol dependence (Kosten, T., & O'Connor, P. 2003). To examine alcohol dependence, this review will consider the following:
1. Neurobiology / Pharmacodynamics
2. Pharmacokinetics / various forms of use
3. Ways in which tolerance and withdrawal occur
4. Pharmacotherapy for treatment
Understanding the cycle of alcohol abuse highlights the complexity of alcohol dependence and, more specifically, emphasizes the problems with treatment of such.
Neurobiology/Pharmacodynamics
Alcohol research is aimed at understanding the neural …show more content…
Alcohol affects several neurotransmitters throughout the body, most prominently, those involved in stress and reward. The systems affected by this are dopamine systems, opioid systems, γ-aminobutyric acid systems, glutamate systems, and serotonin systems. Dopamine is the primary neurotransmitter involved in the reward pathway, which projects from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens. Alcohol enhances the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. Acute alcohol intoxication leads to an incentive motivation as the firing of dopamine is decreased during withdrawal leading to a desire to drink to fire dopamine once again. Endogenous opioids interact with opioid receptors leading to a sense of euphoria. Seeing that alcohol increases the release of such opioids, naturally produced in the body, it is speculated that the opioid system is the main contributing factor to the addictive properties of alcohol. The γ-aminobutyric acid system, also known as the GABA system, is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter within the brain (Gilpin, N., & Koob, G. 2008). As ethanol acts on the GABA-releasing neuron, this neurotransmitter is attributed to the sedative effects of alcohol. Glutamate is the brains major excitatory neurotransmitter. Alcohol inhibits glutamate activity in the brain leading again to sedative effects. The serotonin system is examined as it pertains to the link between serotonin depletion to …show more content…
There are currently three major drugs in testing to help reduce the risk of relapse and severity of alcohol dependence. Naltrexone is an opioid receptor antagonist that was approved by the FDA in 1994, which appears to reduce heavy drinking by weakening the rewarding effects of alcohol. It acts to reduce dopamine release in response to alcohol entering the system. With less dopamine the user feels less of an excitatory response towards alcohol use. Naltrexone also has a fairly wide margin of safety as no fatalities have been reported with naltrexone overdose, nor does it appear to reduce seizure threshold (De Sousa A.,