Addiction
Addiction is a national public health crisis that can have devastating consequences for patients and their families. The COVID-19 pandemic has only made the situation more desperate. In 2020, the U.S. set a record for the most overdose deaths in a year—more than 93,000 people died of an overdose that year, up almost 30% from the year before.
Addiction treatment is expensive, and techniques and results vary widely. Medications like methadone and buprenorphine can help with opioid addiction. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help people cope with cravings. Group therapy and 12-step programs are popular as well. But people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol often suffer from social, family, and legal problems.
In 2020, about 2.7 million people aged 12 or older in the U.S. had an opioid use disorder in the past year
700K drug overdose deaths in the U.S. since 2000
The federal government budgeted $35 billion for drug control in 2020
As with many public health problems, Key Publications prevention is the key.
That’s why Lieber Institute scientists are examining the biological mechanisms that lie at the root of addiction. They’ve analyzed the genetics from human postmortem brain tissue, trying to determine what portion of addiction is heritable, passed down through generations in a family. Identifying the genes that make people prone to addiction and the mechanisms that regulate the expression of those genes in the brain could provide therapeutic targets to more effectively treat and prevent addiction.
“Using advanced molecular neurobiological techniques, we are studying postmortem human brain tissue to better understand the molecular identity and spatial relationships of cells necessary for motivated behavior and reward processing. We can also ask if these cells and circuits are particularly vulnerable to genetic risk for psychiatric and substance use disorders to identify targets for prevention and treatment. In particular, we use advanced techniques such as single-cell sequencing and spatial transcriptomics to define the molecular neuroanatomy of critical brain structures. We are also committed to providing tools and resources to the broader scientific community to advance their own studies.”
Kristen Maynard, PhD, Investigator
