Drug dependency?
Drug Dependency?
In addition to exerting their effects through molecular mechanisms, these drugs intervene at various points in the brain’s central reward circuit (see above diagram).
It is through this combination of effects on the reward circuit and on other brain structures that a drug induces the behaviors and specific subjective sensations.
Because neural communication is so plastic, a new equilibrium will gradually be established that includes the psychoactive substances from the outside. It is this adaptability of the brain that causes tolerance, dependency, and withdrawal (see below). Dopamine is not the only molecule involved in this process of drug co-dependency.
Tolerance is a mechanism that gradually reduces the effects of a drug. The adaptable brain’s downside is that it drives drug addicts to increase their dosage to try to feel again the intoxicating effects felt with their first “fix”.
The plasticity of the human brain facilitates the creation of dependencies. When chronic consumers of a certain drug suddenly stop taking it, their neurons have to learn to cope with a new biochemical environment.
As a result, people experience discomfort and cravings. To overcome their dependency, they must go through a period of withdrawal until their neurons have relearned how to function without the drug.
Addiction affects DNA transcription factors like Delta-FosB
Past life Programs also determine the use of transcription factors
Withdrawal is needed to allow your system to remove those factors
Recent research experiments were able to show that the gene Maged1 controls the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens.
The gene was also effective in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain most affected by cocaine abuse, and not in the neurons producing dopamine in the VTA.