Alcohol is one of the most common causes of addiction. However, men fall into this addiction twice as often as women. Why is this happening? Scientists from Columbia University and Yale University decided to answer this question, reports Elsevier.
Until now, the biological reasons why men develop alcoholism more often have not been fully understood. The latest research proves that dopamine may be responsible for this.
Researchers from Columbia University and Yale University studied students who were occasionally drinking alcohol. After consuming alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, each participant underwent positron emission tomography (PET), an imaging technique that measures the amount of dopamine that emerged from the release of alcohol.
Dopamine has many functions in the brain. In this context, it is important that it is also called the happiness hormone. Its appearance in the spaces between neurons in the nucleus accumbens manifests itself in a sense of euphoria. The main action of cocaine, for example, is to stimulate the release of dopamine in the brain.
During the research, it was observed that despite the consumption of a similar amount of alcohol, men release more dopamine than women. An increase in the secretion of this substance has been noticed in the ventral striatum, a part of the brain strongly associated with pleasure and addiction.
In men, increased dopamine secretion was also more strongly associated with the positive effects of alcohol intoxication. This can lead to an initial enhancement of alcohol’s properties and the risk of becoming addicted, Dr. Nina Urban explains.
Dr. Anissa Abi-Dargham added that research has also found that frequent and heavy alcohol use causes less and less dopamine to be released. This could be one of the hallmarks of developing alcohol tolerance or becoming addicted to alcohol.
The results of these studies indicate that alcohol’s ability to stimulate dopamine release may play an important and complex role in addiction tendency.
The study was published in Biological Psychiatry. (PAP)