Determining genetics to acquire an addiction

• April 25, 2024

The addiction it's a complex problem; it is estimated that 50% of the vulnerability of being addict It is hereditary. However, there are also adverse social factors during childhood or adolescence that increase the risk of consuming some type of legal or illegal drug, revealed Nora Volkow , director of National Institute of Drug Abuse of the United States .
 
During the presentation: The addict brain, which was carried out in the National Institutes of Cancerology and Respiratory Diseases , the specialist highlighted that recent studies have allowed to identify genetic factors that influence so much to potentiate the action of experimenting with drug as to acquire addiction :
 
"There are people who have greater susceptibility to acquire an addiction, but there are others who, although they are habitual consumers, never acquire it".

Life experience makes a difference

Volkow, clarified that now it is known that "negative" social factors during childhood or adolescence, such as emotional, physical, sexual abuse, abandonment or family dysfunction, increase the risk of acquiring an addiction:

"This is a very important finding, because until now the genetic factors can not be modified, but the social agents do, and that is precisely where there is a great opportunity for prevention against addictions."
 
Before the medical community of the health institutes, the expert commented that the addictions they are considered "developmental diseases"; Unlike Cancer , Parkinson or Alzheimer's , which occur after 50 years, addictions They occur during youth and in some cases from childhood.
 
The head of the National Institute of Drug Abuse in the United States, said that some of the factors that increase the adolescent's susceptibility to addiction it is the lack of maturity of your brain, which leads to committing impulsive acts, in addition to that your emotions are more intense and this translates into a greater risk of consuming some kind of drug .

Video Medicine: Genetics Determine About Half Of A Person's Predisposition To Addiction | TODAY (April 2024).