Question: How would you help people how to get unaddicted from the drugs that they have taken in their life?

Emma Cahill answered on 12 Nov 2013:

Hi Drew, this is the mega question! We know a lot now about what changes at the level of molecules, chemicals and even in the brain structure of drug addicts. At the moment, most addicts have to relie on will power and therapy sessions.
So one hope is that we can find a way to block the “craving” for drugs by blocking certain molecular and chemical brain pathways using (other non addictive) drug treatments. An exciting concept is that drug addiction is like a learned behaviour. The brain circuits for reward learning and habit are basically hijacked by addictive drugs, and these drugs train the brain to change and alter the person’s behaviour in the long term to seek out that drug and its associated environment at all costs. If we could develop a way to help the brain “unlearn” or forget the drug we could perhaps prevent relapse in addicts. We need to find a pharmacological way to break the link between drug associated environments and craving.
Researchers have started looking at how we can weaken these drug-induced memories, because we know from animals studies that once a memory is reactived it becomes open and fragile before it can be stored again.
Like, if you’re teacher Drew gave you a list of words to learn, then asked you later in the day to remember them I’m sure you would do well, but if in the mean time I gave you a simular but different list as well, you might get them both mixed up. The first list gets “encoded” or stored by brain, but the second list can interfer with this memory.
In the future scientists will show drug addicts reminders of their drug taking (like needles) and then, when the drug memory is open and fragile, they will treat them with medical drugs to block the chemical pathways in the brain that are activated so the drug-memory can be re-stored.
Hope that makes a bit of sense?