Addiction's Roots Are In The Genes

Posting Date: 04/13/2000

A blockbuster of a study on substance abuse shows that while the family environment plays a role in certain aspects of drug and alcohol abuse, the biggest factor is your genetic heritage.

With this in mind, shouldn?t we have compassion when it comes to the abuse of drugs and alcohol? Shouldn?t we be helping people with their drug addictions instead of putting them in jail?

text continues below

Visit the Substance Abuse and Addiction Center

This new study is kind of complex and involves interviews with 1,998 male twin pairs, 708 of them being identical twins. One consistent finding was that among identical twins, if one is a heavy user of drugs or alcohol, so is the other, and dependence on the drug is usually substantial.

The twin resemblance for any drug use and for cannabis and hallucinogen use was found to be due to both environmental and genetic factors. However, the need for sedatives, stimulants, cocaine and opiates was pinned on genetic factors alone, according to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

I should point out that a similar study with women twin pairs came up with similar results -? namely, that heredity plays a major part in causing addiction to illicit drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

I think it?s terrible that we take people who are having trouble with drugs and throw them behind bars instead of giving them medical assistance. This short-sighted treatment of drug users is reminiscent of how health authorities mistreated the mentally ill in the 19th Century when they locked them up in insane asylums.

Jail isn?t the solution to solving drug use and abuse in society and future generations will judge us by how we treat people who are genetically prone to addictive behavior. We certainly shouldn?t make criminals out of those at a high-risk of developing a dependence on drugs.

If we have to err in our approach to drug use and abuse, let?s err on the side of humanity and do what is best to help people with drug-loving genes.

Source: Archives of General Psychiatry, March 2000