From: cuegf@dcatla.uucp
Newsgroups: alt.drugs,sci.med,talk.politics.drugs,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Definition of an addict.
Date: 14 Aug 92 18:41:03 GMT
Organization: Digital Communications Associates, Alpharetta, GA

In article <1992Aug11.134227.26601@inmet.camb.inmet.com>, mazur@inmet.camb.inmet.com (Beth Mazur) writes:
> In article <1992Aug5.063121.27605@bradley.bradley.edu> dave@bradley.bradley.edu (David Vessell) writes:
>>Sez you.  I realize that many mental illnesses are not curable.
>>Schizophrenia (and most psychoses, actually) and bipolar mood disorder 
>>spring to mind.  You say that addictions fall into this category.  I don't 
>>believe you.  

None of the above poster's responses in this now tiresome AA debate
has contained a shred of scientific evidence.  It is well known
that opinions not based on scientific evidence deserve the same
scientific plane as theories or philosophies. 

> For a scientific look at this issue, check out the work of George Vaillant.
> He is a researcher affiliated with Harvard, I believe, and he has been
> doing longitudinal (ie, over a period of decades) studies of alcoholism.
> 
> I glanced at his book on alcoholism last night regarding AA, and surprisingly,
> he was not violently anti-AA.  However, he does say that a number of 
> people can, and do, return to "asymptomatic drinking."  You may or may
> not want to call that "cured."  Vaillant subscribes to the idea that
> alcoholism is not a binary "you're an alcoholic or you're not" proposition,
> but rather, that alcoholism is a disorder marked by symptoms.  The more
> symptoms you have (they use a scale called the PDS with items like "has
> missed work due to drinking," " has had episodes of losing consciousness"
> and so on) the more difficult it is to change the behavior.

Many diseases of the brain have different shades of intensity,
like the depressions and psychoses.  I would think that 
alcoholism does too, but I would question that someone who can
return to drinking ever had a physically based disease in the
first place.  More and more hard, scientific evidence is emerging
pointing to a correlation between neurotransmitter dysfunction
and the brain.  An interesting, basic look at the neurochemistry
of the brain can be found in Solomon Snyder's book "Drugs and
the Brain". Snyder discovered the opiate receptor in the early
70's, was the first person to be able to culture brain cells, and
has made many important discoveries about brain neurochemistry.

People use to think that manic-depressive psychoses was a 
psychological disease.  Then lithium was approved and what do
you know, 80% of persons with manic-depression who took it 
improved partially or completely. It obviously had a physical
basis, which is being uncovered today by research. 
Manic-depression has different intensities, however, all 
classified in different catagories, from bipolar 1, to bipolar 2,
to cyclothemia, to a cyclothemic personality, with many shadings
in each catagory.

It seems like (this is an opinion) that alcoholism may be similar.
Obviously, some persons seem to be "borderline" heavy drinkers,
and others can drink themselves to death in a relatively short 
time, with many shadings in between.  What they ALL probably have
in common (evidence is emerging) is a PHYSICAL component which
causes some degree of addiction to alcohol.  Obviously, there is
a behavioral aspect there. However, if there is a physical 
component which causes the person to drink, I would call it a
disease, a disease which has differing intensities, like most
other physical diseases.


Ed Francell
Newsgroups: alt.drugs