What makes us get drunk? The receptor system in the brain may be responsible, according to new research. Experts from the Medical University of South Carolina (USA) are looking for the neurological basis of the harmful habit.
The causes of binge drinking
– Binge drinking is the most common way of consuming alcohol. This is risky behavior, and one of the consequences of repeated binge drinking is an increased risk of alcoholism, notes Dr. Howard C. Becker, who led the study in Neuropharmacology.
According to the researcher, people who regularly get drunk in their youth are up to ten times more likely to develop alcoholism. Binge drinking normally occurs after four standard drinks for women and five for men within two hours.
– Binge drinking is destructive behavior. Our goal was to reduce it. In our research, we discovered a region and system in the brain that can be manipulated to reduce binge drinking, says one scientist JR Haun.
Alcohol dependence – how does it work?
Researchers looked at the opioid system, which corresponds, inter alia, to for drug addiction. Stimulating opioid receptors usually causes pleasant, including addictive, sensations.
However, there are some type of opioid receptors called kappa receptors that do the opposite.
– The kappa opioid receptor system is the antithesis of opioid receptors. It is often referred to as an anti-reward system, explains Haun.
Stimulating these receptors causes a feeling of stress and dissatisfaction. They are activated, for example, when you stop drinking and cause nausea, headaches and a feeling of stress.
Scientists have found that turning off these receptors in mice reduces the attraction to alcohol. This means that kappa receptors are also involved in drinking, even though they are unpleasant.
– It is not entirely clear why this is so. But we know that these kappa receptors play an important role in the negative emotional states that fuel drinking when it becomes involuntary, Haun points out.
The receptors can therefore make you feel drunk, making you feel unwell in the absence of alcohol.
Researchers focused on the amygdala of mice. This is the area of the brain involved in motivation. At the same time, it is sensitive to stress and participates in the formation of the compulsion to drink. The region also contains kappa receptors. Scientists turned them off in alcohol-addicted mice, who could drink as much as they wanted.
Blocking the kappa receptors in the amygdala didn’t completely abolish drinking. But it reduced it to a more moderate level, more like drinking a glass of wine with dinner instead of a whole bottle, Haun relates.
This indicates that kappa receptors in the amygdala are key to binge drinking. Blocking them could help treat alcoholism.
“I think the ultimate goal is to better understand the potential targets for therapy and how new drugs could help reduce the compulsion and motivation to drink excessively in people who have developed or are close to alcoholism,” emphasizes Dr. Becker.
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