Main biochemical pathways in drug addiction discovered

From The Economist A group of Chinese scientists from Peking University, led by Wei Liping has discovered the main biochemical pathways in drug addiction.
Dr Wei's group looked at the four most addictive drug types : alcohol, cocaine, nicotine and opiates. Of 1,500 genes implicated with addiction . Five genes, were common to all four types, and these five pathways therefore look as though they are at the core of the process of addiction.
The existence of these five central pathways helps explain a lot about addiction.
First, it gives weight to the belief that some people are more susceptible to all sorts of addiction than others are. That contrasts with the thought that addictions are substance-by-substance phenomena, though the two ideas are not mutually exclusive since changes in the 13 substance-specific pathways clearly also result in addiction. In other words some people are prone to addictive substances
Second, the particular pathways involved help to explain why addiction is so hard to reverse.
Addictions are hard to break. Several of them take part in strengthening the connections between nerve cells, which is the underlying basis of learning. Unlearning something by breaking these connections is hard.
Third, Dr Wei was able to link the five central pathways together into a network, and show that this network has four positive-feedback loops in it.
None of this, of course, directly helps the addict, though it reinforces the message that it is better not to start taking these drugs in the first place.
The answer is don't start doing drugs But working out how the addiction machine operates may point those looking for therapies in the right direction. And this study also shows that the old cry “more research is necessary” is not always true. Sometimes all you need to do is look at what you already have in a different way. The red text is my notes
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