WEBVTT - The Future of Addiction 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Flow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.360 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.360 My name is Robert Lamb and it's summer vacation people 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:18.840 who are on break. We thought it's a great opportunity 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:21.959 to replay a couple of our favorite episodes on the 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.279 very serious topic of addiction. Um. The last episode was 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:28.120 a repeat of the Science of Addiction, and today we're 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.920 going to repeat the Future of Addiction, where we look 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:34.159 to the future to see in different ways to to 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:38.160 deal with this crushing problem. Uh So, without further ado, 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:46.199 let's dive into the top. This episode is, uh, I'm 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:48.760 gonna look at the future of addiction. Uh. And we're 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:50.720 not talking about just what kind of crazy drugs would 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:54.080 have in the future. Now, we're talking about how can 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.440 we treat addiction in the future. What are some of 0:00:56.480 --> 0:01:00.200 the cutting edge and emerging techniques and technolog only do 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:03.200 is that will be at our disposal to deal with 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:05.840 the disease of addiction. Yeah, and before we look at 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:07.960 the future stuff, let's just kind of look at what's 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:10.560 going on in the present. The number one driver of 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:15.120 aids in the world is used heroin needles, particularly in 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:20.720 countries where there's no needle exchange programs. So what if 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:24.280 you could get rid of the root problem, you could 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:28.319 eradicate heroin addiction, or for that matter, really any addiction. Yeah, 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:31.040 and we're not just talking instantly. Minds tend to turn 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:33.480 to Africa, and certainly that's one of the areas concerned here, 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:36.240 but other you know, countries that don't have needle exchange 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:41.520 programs include such large, uh populous nations as China and Russia. Yeah, 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:43.640 I think that people don't, you know, at least people 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.400 outside of the United States don't realize what in the 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.960 city is problem. This is half a trillion dollars or 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.559 spent worldwide to treat addiction. So here's just one little 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:57.400 prism of the addiction problem in the US. And estimated 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:01.240 one point four million Americans are addicted to pain, which 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:03.480 was the reason for more than four hundred and eighty 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:07.000 two thousand emergency department visits in two thousand and eight 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.880 and is a leading cause of heart attack and stroke 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:16.560 among people younger than age thirty five. So the problem here, 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:21.000 of course is that we have access and if you 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.640 look at you know, sort of where drugs are in 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.839 the time continuum of history here, Um, we have more 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.600 access to drugs than ever before, and more types of drugs, 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.960 and what emerges here are some highly, highly addictive substances. 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:40.080 I'm talking about meth, which creates one of the biggest 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:44.120 boosts of dopamine in the brain, and prolonged use of 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:48.679 this can lead to psychotic like symptoms, talking about strong hallucinations, 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:52.480 really violent behavior, and studies of the brain patterns of 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.400 some long term matthews have shown that up to fift 0:02:55.919 --> 0:03:00.520 of their dopamine producing cells have been damaged. So if 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:04.240 you listened um to the other episode on this, then 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.200 you kind of know already that, Um, this is a 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:10.959 situation where the person is just getting deeper and deeper 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:14.679 into the hull because it's not about free will anymore, 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:17.680 because the parts of your brand, the executive function, have 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.560 been so eroded by drugs that even if you wanted 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.200 to stop, you might not be able to. Yeah, and 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.000 and and that's certainly the the anti drug messaging that 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.880 I think needs to be focused on more often with 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.840 meth amphetamy. Because I was reading and according to neuro 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:37.640 psychopharmacologist Carl Hart, there's actually no empirical evidence to support 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:41.000 the claim that meth amphetamy causes one to become physically unattractive, 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.680 which hopefully they've they're calming down on that, but for 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:47.280 the longest, like like meth mouth, you know, and the 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.680 transformation of the meth addict into some sort of subhuman 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.280 hyena person has been kind of the focus. When certainly 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:58.040 that's flashy that works on a billboard a little easier, 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.520 but the reality of what's actually changing with the brain 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.080 that is far scarier than some sort of decal on 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:06.440 hide ship. I agree. I have seen the ads before 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.640 where there's like this beautiful woman and then she takes 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:11.160 out her false teeth and she takes off her makeup, 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.920 and all of a sudden you see her meth attic 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.679 riddled face, and they are appealing to vanity. But vanity 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:22.640 doesn't matter. When addiction is highly routinized in your brain, um, 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.320 nobody cares anymore what they look like. So if you 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.120 were to instead crack open the brain and show people 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.440 this is how your brain is actually like completely mutating here, 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.880 that might be a far more compelling story to people. 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:38.240 The next one is another biggie, and that is of 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.680 course heroin derived from opium, and of course this one 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.880 has been wreaking havoc for for years and years. Yeah, 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.359 thirty of first time users will become addicted. In two 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.440 thousand and five, two point four percent of the American 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.480 population said they had tried heroin at least once. The 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.240 source of that is Department of Health. And withdrawal symptoms 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:01.600 are really acute. They arrive just a few hours after 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.200 a dose swears off, and because of this, users have 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:06.720 a really high chance for relapse. Because we talked about 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.640 this in the last episode. UM, at some point the 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.799 addiction becomes less about chasing the high and more about 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:16.159 chasing some sort of equilibrium and feeling normal again, which 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.520 can only happen if you get more of the substance 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:20.520 in your body. All right, And the next big one 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.839 to hit might come as surprise because it's not crack cocaine. 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:29.520 It is nicotine. Nicotine is a very addictive substance. But 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:33.880 we often overlook this why. Um, I think it's because 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.640 it's legalized, right something like of people who ever try 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:41.599 cigarettes will become nicotine addicts. At some point, you can 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.240 buy it legally at the store, at the gas station 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.160 used to. You can get out of a machine. Um, 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.520 someone's liable too, and it's given its legality and an 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:55.000 overall still social acceptance, um, people are liable to give 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:56.640 it to you without it being that big of a 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.600 deal as well. So and it still looks cool on TV, right, Yeah, 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:02.800 and it's not as big of a risk. And this 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.039 is something that David Lyndon, professor of neuroscience at Johns 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.560 Hopkins University, pointed out. He said, you know, hey, if 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:11.960 you have a bag of heroin, you're not going to 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.279 do a whole bag of heroin. You know you're gonna overdose. 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.640 But if you have a pack of cigarettes and you 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:20.520 have ten or twenty of those cigarettes throughout the day, 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.880 you get that little ding of dopamine each time. And 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:25.840 he kind of yeah, he kind of like likened it 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:27.920 to pav Offs dog, right, so he said that we're 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.440 really good at training or inner dog and sort of 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:32.440 being like, oh, I need a little pick up right now, 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:37.800 and you get that little dopamine um pleasure feeling from it. 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:42.960 But you're not going to necessarily, um render yourself unconscious 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.359 or unable to work or any of those things. But 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.880 still it is an addiction, and it is an addictive behavior. Yeah, 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:50.800 you hear about people being one or two back a 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.680 day smoker, whereas in the panel they pointed out that 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:59.240 that even a heavy heroine user is probably not going 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.600 to use more than through times a day. And so 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:03.560 to go back to what one of the topics were 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.320 discussed in the previous episode, chunking that idea that the 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.000 brain is forming habits give X, then Y and Z 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:11.400 and uh and then per forming a shortcut kind of 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:13.760 a hot key for the brain for behavior encoding the 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.120 memory of usage. Uh, you're going to have, what you know, 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:21.520 twenty times uh or more per day that you're enforcing 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.840 that shortcut as opposed to a maximum three times per 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.480 day with the hairin user. Yeah. And Charles do Hick, 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.480 the author of UM, the Habit Loop, I think I 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:35.280 totally slaughtered that. But um, he's talked about this and 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.520 written about this at length, and he says his claim 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:42.480 is that percent of our decisions every day that's just habit. 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.200 We think we're making these decisions, but really we're just 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:50.000 responding to environmental cues in these well worn neural pathways 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.440 in our brains. Yeah, because, if we've discussed before, habits 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.240 take up energy, if they take a cognitive power, and 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:58.280 we don't have a limitless amount of that. So we 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:00.520 handed over to to routine, we end it over to 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.560 habit so that we'll have some juice to handle the 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:06.920 actual decisions that are coming at and of course that 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.280 the problem with this is that again, your brain, your 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:12.840 brain secretary, isn't making any sort of like, hey, this 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.320 could be a terrible thing. Don't do this. Um and 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.080 your prefrontal cortex, your executive functions in your brain are 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:23.120 already sort of um lessened by the addictive behavior. All right, 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.480 The next thing we have here is prescription medication, one 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:30.320 of the rapidly growing substances of abuse in the US. 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:35.760 Between nineteen eighty and abuse of prescription drugs increased four 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.440 and it has about the same amount of usage in 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:44.760 America as cocaine. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.320 drug overdose was the leading cause of injury death in 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.760 two thousand and ten, and among people twenty five to 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:55.559 sixty four years old, drug overdose caused more death than 0:08:55.640 --> 0:09:02.640 motor vehicle traffic crashes. So the National Institute on Drug 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:05.319 Abuse goes on to say, by the way, and two 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.720 doesn't intend seventy eight percent of the drug overdose depths 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:13.520 in the US were unintentional seventy eight percent. And I 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.400 think that this is painting a story here about how 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:21.760 prescription drugs, uh have become so accessible in people are 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.520 mixing them with other drugs or mixing them with alcohol 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:28.240 to their detriment. Yeah, I mean, it's it's important to 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.679 to to to to to point out, yeah, that prescription 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.120 drugs just because it's prescribed, does not mean it is 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:38.560 necessarily a safe substance of Any of these are very 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.040 dangerous socis. I mean, any of these are amphetamines. Uh, 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.240 and they're not that different from the illegal variant. And 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.800 certainly methamphetamine itself is memory serves as scheduled to narcotic anyway, 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.920 which means that it consuvably has a medical purpose. Uh. 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.800 And it makes sense to like, which which car is 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:57.640 going to be faster, the one made in a garage 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:02.040 or the one made at at a at a factory. Right, 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:04.600 And what do we have with with drugs? Your street 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.880 drug is often made in a garage, whereas your your 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.319 pharmaceutical product, he's made by a billion upon billion dollar industry. 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:16.600 So it's it's kind of like a supercharged vehicle. Yeah. 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:20.600 And um, I'm sure that people are aware that there 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:22.439 are ways that people get their hands on drugs that 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:25.320 they shouldn't have. They were legal drugs prescribed and I 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:26.840 won't go into that. I will say that if you 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:30.520 are interested in learning more abound fist prescription drugs, check 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.760 out the documentary American Addict that goes into detail. It's 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:37.560 pretty depressing, um, but it's also very eye opening about 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.080 this topic. All Right, we're gonna take a quick break 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:41.599 and we get back. We're going to talk about the 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:53.839 treatments of addiction. Alright, we're back, So we've we've we 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.600 discussed addiction here. Let's talk about the ways that we 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:01.760 treat addiction. We have several different approaches that are currently 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:05.120 in play, and we're looking at some some new methods 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.320 of tackling in the future. Yeah, and before we go 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:09.679 into that, we should say, hey, by the way, rate 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.800 of relapse is really high for addicts. I think this 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:16.440 is something most people know. According to the National Institute 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.680 on Drug Abuse, relapse rates for drug addicted patients about 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:25.440 forty It's similar to relapse and those suffering from diabetes, hypertension, 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.880 and asthma, and drug addictions should be treated like any 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:32.240 other chronic illness with relapse serving as a trigger for 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.320 renewed intervention. So keep this in mind. Um, and we 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:39.840 talked about this, this idea of memory encoding behavior and 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:43.400 there are being triggers for that. So imagine that you 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:48.240 have just completed a program, say from heroin abuse, and 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.880 you get out and UM, I think I called them before, 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.400 these neural ghosts, these neural pathways in your brain, the 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:59.360 sort of cellular scarring that's still there. It's very easy 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.800 to tap into that and have that behavior express itself again. 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.320 A great example of this is Philip Seymour Hoffman, which 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.160 is brought up at the World Science Festival for the 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.880 panel of the Craving Brain. They said, look at this guy. 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.840 He was something like ten years sober from heroin addiction, 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:19.720 went to a rap party one night, had a beer, 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:22.520 and then something like I don't know, was it weeks 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:26.160 or months later, had died from heroin overdose. Yeah, I 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.120 just started him down the path, opened up those pathways 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.640 again in the brain, those those pathways of habit and 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.679 behavior in addiction, and uh, and then then that's where 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.600 he ended up. Yeah, So you know, you're not treating 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:41.400 something that's easily dealt with. Here, right, Just I keep 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:43.439 coming back to the idea of a cat's cradle, right, 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.120 you know where you take the shoe lace tied together 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:48.439 and you you string it between your fingers, and it's 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.280 all the different fingers holding the string out to form 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.920 this pattern. And you can't you know, put a point 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.280 at one particular finger and say that is the cause 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:58.320 of the pattern, that is the cause of the the 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.959 overall design here. And just as there's no over that 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:04.480 one finger you can pin the whole design on, there's 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.680 no one finger you can remove. There's no one treatment 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.520 plan that's going to to be a magic bullet against 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:14.280 the problem of addiction. Yeah, because in one sense, um, 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:18.360 it doesn't really matter anymore if you have genetic dispositions 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:20.720 to addiction, if you're in the middle of an addiction, 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.319 because at that point you've got habit taken over, you've 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:28.319 got the transfer station, there are significant changes to your brain, 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:31.160 and now you've got you know, memory all wrapped up 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.200 in it. So um. So, yeah, it is a bit 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.960 of a cat's cradle. But the treatments can't really treat 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:42.600 a cat's cradle. You can pretty much go after individual fingers. Yeah, Yeah, 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.800 there's no unified treatments. So the most widespread medication right 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:50.040 now is in a antidepressants, because this would address the 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:54.160 feelings of despair or you know, any sort of pre 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:57.040 existing condition like depression that may have led to the 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.760 addiction in the first place. So the album with that though, 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:02.439 is that you would have to really pair that with 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.560 behavioral therapy because it's not just enough to say, here's 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:08.880 a depressant and we have another a number of other 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:12.720 medications that sort of target individual parts of the chemical 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:17.240 cocktail involved in addiction. UM. We have, for instance, one 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.480 of the most famous being a methodone which suppresses withdrawal 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:24.800 symptoms and relieves craving. With the people are recovering from 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:28.080 from heroin, uh, you know, morphine addiction. UM. You have 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.440 other substance such as now trek zone, which works by 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.320 blocking the effects of heroin and other opiates at the 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:36.200 receptor sites. UM. You have of course, so when you're 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.760 dealing with nicotine nicotine, you have nicotine replacement therapy where 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:44.000 essentially you're still getting the nicotine, just not through the cigarette, 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.080 and that's used to help with the with the with 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:51.120 with the with cravings and whatnot. With alcohol, you have 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.960 now trek zone, which blocks opiate receptors that are involved 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.640 in the reroarting effects of drinking and in the craving 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:01.520 of alcohol. UM. So you see all these types of 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.240 medication there Again, they're going after sort of a particular 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.280 point in the chain and chain of effect and uh 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.920 and that. But they can't they can't deal with environment. 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.120 They can only deal with with one point in in 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:15.840 the the chemical reaction, be it in how the brain 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.680 is receiving or how the brain is dealing with withdrawal 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.280 from the substance. And of course that has to have 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:26.480 to have a behavioral counterpoint counterpoint part in order to succeed. Yeah, 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:30.080 and in the case of methodone, that itself is highly addictive, 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.360 and it's going to argue that you're just delaying the 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.520 process of rehabilitation. Really, you're just moving the goalpost out. 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:39.360 So what do we have on the horizon in the future, 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:43.320 And you've got some really interesting things going on. UM 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:49.440 one is called optogenetics, and are excuse me optogenics And 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:54.160 this is basically kind of like UM a light sensitive 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.640 molecule that's beamed into the brain so far of rats, 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:03.360 So rats that are learning certain habits, the researchers can 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:08.600 use this optogenetics treatment to basically turn on or off 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:13.120 neurons in the rats brains and block the behavior and 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.360 block the the ability of that rat to sort of 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.120 remember like, hey, I want to go and do this. Um. 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.560 And what's interesting about this is that the rats change 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:25.840 their behavior in response to different rewards even when the 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.680 light wasn't present. So after they got the initial zap 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:33.320 with the light, they still didn't return to the bad 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.000 behavior even when a significant amount of time had passed. 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.920 So obviously this is happening in rats right now, not 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.440 in humans. Um. But it plays into this other idea, 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:47.720 which is electromagnetic magnetic stimulation. Yeah, this is the form 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.280 that this would likely take in the treatment of of 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.600 of human addicts, and certainly this is where the research 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:55.360 is headed. Um And and in this we would use 0:16:55.400 --> 0:17:00.600 electromagnetic stimulation outside of the scalp I hope no surgery required, uh, 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:05.520 using transcranial magnetic stimulation on these particular parts of the brain. 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.240 Again to almost not to simplify it and say, it's 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.480 just like turning the switch on and off in terms 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:16.600 of addiction, but but but turning off that that that 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.520 that craving, right, Yeah, and increasing the neural activity in 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.200 the parts of the brain that deal with executive functions 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.400 like willpower. Right, So that's what we've talked about that 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.359 that's such a big part of this. So then you 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:33.119 have you know, willpower being ramped up and you have 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:37.600 the addiction behavior being ramped down. What you still have 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.800 to deal with is memory in those triggers. And David Lyndon, 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.240 the neuroscientists and author of the Compass of Pleasure, says 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:47.080 addiction is a form of learning. When we, for example, 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.600 puff on a cigarette or inject heroin in our arm, 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.800 we are developing associations between the act of puffing or 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.840 the act of injecting all the other sensory information that's 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.359 around the sites and the smells, the people were with, 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:00.879 the music, we're hearing, the room. We're in a situation 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.000 that surrounds us and the pleasure that is produced as 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.800 the result of puffing on that cigarette or injecting that heroin. Well, 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:10.399 I hate to invoke the title of the movie anymore 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:14.679 since it's invoked again in every every news article on 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:16.639 science that deals with erasing the memory. But you kind 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.400 of have to go eternal sunshine of the follower's mind 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.560 on that particular drug memory, because, as we discussed in 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:26.920 previous episode, the drug memory is has has is really 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:29.720 firmly encoded. It's not just the memory of taking the drug. 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.640 Is the memory of the environment, the situation of the drug, 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.280 All these things tied up into it. So, yeah, what 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.840 if you could go after that memory, if you could 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:42.080 blast that memory sort of photon torpedo it, then you 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:46.160 could conceivably have a leg up on beating the addiction, 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.080 or you could you could just like hose it down 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.720 with a chemical, which is essentially what researchers at the 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.520 Script's Research Institute have done. This is from a Fall 0:18:55.600 --> 0:19:00.359 two thousand and thirteen study published online in Biological Yeah Tree. 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:04.560 For six days, they had rats alternate between one of 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.440 two rooms, and on the odd days they were put 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.280 in a chamber let's call it Chamber A and given meth. 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.120 On even days they were put in Chamber B and 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.960 given a sailine place debo. So a couple of days later, 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.080 half of these rodents were given a choice between those 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:24.399 two rooms, and the room associated with that meth, of course, 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.400 was preferred by those rats who were injected with meth. 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.480 But the other half of the rodents were then injected 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.399 with something called La trunculin a or lat A, and 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:37.360 this is a chemical that interferes with actin and that's 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:41.120 a protein known to be involved in memory formation. So 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:45.399 when they were injected with lack day excuse me, latte, 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.760 the animals showed no preference between rooms even up to 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:52.919 a day later. Again, this is all highly experimental, but 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:55.800 it's it's giving us an idea that there are certain 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.920 interventions that can happen to address all the different facets 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:03.280 of addiction. And the researchers do point out that you 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.920 don't have to worry about about this particular method being 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:09.879 used to just erase memories willy nilly. They say that 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.280 you actually couldn't take their discovery and erase your run 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:16.000 of the mill memory inside of the brain. Uh. They said, 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:18.000 you can only use this to get rid of these 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:21.159 strong drug associated memories. And of course there's gonna be 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.639 many more studies and they will have to be human 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:26.200 trials in order for this too for the FDA to 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:29.640 approve of it um. But that gets us into this 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:33.240 other territory in which the f d A has approved 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.160 one type of vaccine but not another. And when I'm 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:41.719 talking about our vaccines developed by Kim d Janda, he 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:44.560 was on that World Science Festival panel of the Craving 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:48.840 Brain to block the effects of heroin and users, but 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:52.000 also block the effects of nicotine and users. So guess 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.040 which one is being funded? Oh well, obviously they're going 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:58.240 to fund the nicotine one because that's your that's your 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:01.240 kind of your your white collar drug. Everyone is dealing 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.600 with nicotine. But heroin, Oh, that's that's a dirty that's 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:06.800 a dirty drug. That's that that's the at the bottom 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:09.640 of the circus tent, right, that's the that's down there 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:12.920 with the safety name. Yeah, even though an estimated twelve 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:16.120 million to fourteen million people used heroin as of two 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.200 thousand and nine, accorded to according to the United Nations 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.600 Office on Drugs and Crime, and Americans uh something like 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.760 two in two thousand and eleven. So obviously it's a 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:27.760 pervasive problem when we spend a lot of money on 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.480 that um. But the vaccine itself stimulates the immune system 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.480 to recognize the substance and has to be given over 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:38.720 a period of weeks, which eventually renders the person immune 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.600 to the drug. Because how do our immune systems try work. Right, 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:45.119 Our immune systems evolved to deal with foreign outside invaders, 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:49.520 so our immune system doesn't doesn't look at incoming cocaine 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.200 or heroin or nicotine or alcohol and say say, oh, 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:55.719 that's bad, let's go after that. They say, sorry, that's 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:59.040 not on our list of of suspects. We're not gonna go. 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:01.800 We're not gonna go to right, you know. So the 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:03.960 idea who are this vaccine is? It is it puts 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:08.680 those offenders on the on the suspect list for our 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:12.760 immune system and keeps them from crossing a very important border, 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:15.080 at least in the case of the heroine. Yeah, the 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:18.240 blood brain barrier, because that's key here. That will actually 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:21.159 block any psychoactive effects. So in other words, you're not 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:23.560 going to get high. Yeah. And what they found in 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:25.800 the rats, or what Genda said he found is that 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:32.359 they would give the rats like uh doses overdose quantity, right, Yeah, 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.720 and the rats would survive when they were vaccinated. So 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:38.760 of course it's not something you would want to try 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:41.800 and human trials, but um, but it does lead us 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:45.800