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TAcademy Award-nominated actor Robert Downey Jr. is the star of many films, including Chaplin, the Iron Man series, Thunder in the tropics and Zodiac, began making movies at the age of five. He is also famous for his addiction to drugs, which he started even before the age of five.
Downey told a number of interviewers that he thought he was addicted and that he had perhaps pbaded on this personality to his son, Indio, who had recently pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine from Felony and had enrolled in a rehab program. Meanwhile, Downey (the elder) explained how his father had initiated him to the drug.
Downey's stories raise crucial questions about how humans manage drugs and addictions:
- Is the addiction inherited and genetic?
- Is dependence more a cultural and environmental phenomenon?
- Is there an addictive personality?
Rehabilitation for drug addicts, medical and psychological treatment and even the criminal justice system depend very much on the right answers to these questions.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (one of the National Institutes of Health), illicit drug abuse costs more than $ 181 billion a year in the US "in health care, loss of productivity, crime, incarceration and drug control ". are based on the hypothesis that drug abuse, as NIDA says, "is a chronic and recurrent brain disease".
But that does not necessarily do it. Generic does not necessarily make a motive for the heritability of alcoholism, for example, makes this disorder entirely genetic. Researchers consider addiction as a complex interaction of genes, metabolism, environment and behavior.th century, when drug addiction was more perceived as a problem of morality, or even since the 1980s, when we witnessed the primitive advertising "we are drugged". The researchers have largely abandoned the search for a global "addictive personality" in which a person shows an archetypal vulnerability to any addiction, be it cigarette, alcohol, heroin, or the game.
Case for the genes
Of all the people who have tried alcohol or illicit drugs, only 10 to 20% develop an addiction. No gene has ever been isolated in people who are hooked on alcohol, drugs or other substances. However, a number of studies show that genetics play an important role:
- Identical studies on twins showed a fairly strong agreement (sharing a behavior and a genetic trait), but even these show some variability. For example, a study on cocaine use at the Medical College of Virginia found a concordance rate of 54% for identical twins, compared to 42% for fraternal twins, but for cocaine abuse, 47% for identical twins and only 8% for fraternal twins.
- Other studies have shown differences depending on the type of substance. An examination conducted by the University of Washington at St. Louis showed that 33-71% of variation in nicotine addiction was inherited, while 48-66% of variation in alcohol dependence was inherited , and that 49% of the variation in gambling addiction was transmitted.
- A gene search has uncovered a number of genetic groups that affect behavior and mood and may be related to addiction. Genes of no less than eight chromosomes have been labeled to play a role in chemical dependence.
Case for the environment
Behavioral scientists have also examined the external factors that could lead to addiction:
- Studies of twins, this time with identical twins not having exactly the same education, showed that the twin who had been badually abused as a child showed a strong tendency towards substance abuse, while the twin did not have these experiences did not share it. addiction.
- Some researchers have indicated that social structures are a key factor in addiction. Monkey studies have shown that those who are dominated by other monkeys are more likely to use cocaine than more socially powerful monkeys. Others have considered poverty and living on the margins of society as a factor of dependency.
- Some behavioral disorders, such as anxiety or impulsive behavior, have been suspected of leading to addiction. Feeling anxious can fuel the need to use drugs that alleviate these feelings and other social fears, while teens can become addicted because they can not yet effectively control their emotions.
Case for nature and feed
- Many studies on alcohol abuse have focused on the ALDH2 gene, which controls the conversion of acetaldehyde, a rather toxic metabolite of alcohol. Some variants of ALDH2 do not convert acetaldehyde very well to acetate, particularly in Asian populations. Some studies show that people with this version of ALDH2 were much less likely to become alcoholics, but the alcohol-intensive business culture that has developed in Japan and in Other Asian countries in the 1980s and 1990s forced businessmen (mostly men) to drink.
- Although addicts may behave as if they were suffering from a pathological condition (compulsive drug research and use, despite adverse consequences), drug addiction modifies the mode of metabolism of certain neurotransmitters such as dopamine, but they can also recover completely, at rates up to 80%.
- As we mentioned in the Genetic Literacy Project, epigenetic changes also affect people who become addicts and why. Excessive consumption of cocaine and alcohol can determine how genes that protect against dependence are regulated, while increasing the number of dopamine receptors (and activity) can help prevent addiction.
Was Robert Downey Jr. right?
A director of NIDA recently estimated that the genetic risk of dependence was around 50%. So Downey may have pbaded on a drug addiction trend to his son, but he may have been influenced as much by his father as by his own DNA.
A version of this article was originally published on GLP on December 8, 2016.
Andrew Porterfield is a writer and publisher. He has collaborated with numerous academic institutions, businesses and non-profit organizations in the life sciences sector. ORGANIC. Follow him on Twitter @AMPorterfield
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