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As a physician practicing addiction medicine, Kathleen Whaley, MD, helps people who cannot control their use of alcohol and other drugs. Dr. Kathleen Whaley has also worked in detoxification settings for those withdrawing from various substances.
The brain’s response to addictive drugs is the subject of a study performed at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Scientists are investigating the differences between a person who can control their drug intake and those whose lack of control leads to significant abuse.
Writing in the journal Nature, senior author Dr. Christian Luscher describes an experiment on mice involving the brain’s reward system when exposed to addictive drugs. To mimic the human experience of chemically-induced pleasure, researchers conditioned the mice to press a lever in order to receive neural stimulation.
Once the lever-pressing habit was established, researchers added a device that emitted a mild electric shock on activation. Experiencing the shock was considered analogous to human beings having negative consequences from drug use, such as social isolation and being jailed.
Forty percent of the mice stopped pressing the lever once the shocks began, while 60 percent of them continued to stimulate themselves despite the pain. What began as a controlled activity became compulsive for the second group.
This is only the beginning of Dr. Luscher and his team’s research. Since all the mice were genetically identical, the reasons for the different responses remain unknown. The scientists plan to examine factors in life experiences that may affect the neural circuitry of the mice.
Kathleen Whaley MD 
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