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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 28 2020, @04:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the can't-catch-a-break dept.

UCI researchers identify a connection between early life adversity and opioid addiction:

[Note: UCI is the University of California, Irvine. --Ed.]

Published in Molecular Psychiatry, the study titled, "On the early life origins of vulnerability to opioid addiction," examines how early adversities interact with factors such as increased access to opioids to directly influence brain development and function, causing a higher potential for opioid addiction.

"We already know that genetics plays a major role in addiction vulnerability. But, this factor alone cannot account for the recent exponential rise in opioid abuse," said Tallie Z. Baram, MD, PhD, the Danette Shepard Chair in Neurological Sciences at the UCI School of Medicine and one of the senior researchers for the study. "Our team was determined to find out if environmental factors, like early life adversity, were contributing."

Until now, it was unclear whether alterations of the maturation and function of pleasure/reward circuits in the brain, resulting from ELA, actually caused individuals to be more vulnerable to opioid use disorder.

[...] For this study, researchers simulated ELA in rats by limiting bedding and nesting materials during a short, postnatal period of time. In female rats, this led to striking opioid addiction-like characteristics including an increased relapse-like behavior. Remarkably, as observed in addicted humans, the rats were willing to work very hard (pay a very high price) to obtain the drug.

"Our study provided novel insights into potential origins and nature of a reward circuit malfunction in the brain," said Baram. "Ultimately, we found that conditions during sensitive developmental periods can lead to vulnerability to the addictive effects of opioid drugs, especially in females, which is consistent with the prevalence of ELA in heroin addicted women."

Journal Reference:
Sophia C. Levis, Brandon S. Bentzley, Jenny Molet, Jessica L. Bolton, Christina R. Perrone, Tallie Z. Baram, Stephen V. Mahler. On the early life origins of vulnerability to opioid addiction. Molecular Psychiatry, 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41380-019-0628-5


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @06:20PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @06:20PM (#950152)

    Not really - why would adversity only affect poor people? I've known many people that died from heroin overdoses and came from wealthy but broken homes. The only poor kids that could afford drugs when I was at school were the ones selling them to the rich kids.

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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday January 28 2020, @06:47PM (1 child)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday January 28 2020, @06:47PM (#950168) Homepage
    > > more
    > only

    Steady on - argue the point made, not an exageration of it.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @01:37AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @01:37AM (#950391)

      I went to a private school and had stopped taking drugs by the age most poor kids were starting. My first (anorexic) girlfriend died of a heroine overdose, no thanks to her wife-beating, coke-snorting, sun glasses adorned, sports car driving father - psychopath! Abuse knows no class.