Addiction Solution Source

Researchers have generally known that people with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) are more likely than others to smoke cigarettes and abuse alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and other street drugs.

In a recent study, a team led by Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, documented decreased dopamine activity in the brains of a group of adults with ADHD. Dopamine is associated with feeling good.

The researchers compared brain scans on 19 adults with ADHD — average age 32 — who had never received medication for the condition to brain scans of 24 healthy adults of a similar age without ADHD.

If you take a drug of abuse, whether it’s alcohol or street drugs, what you’re going to be doing is temporarily increasing the concentration of dopamine in the brain so you feel better.

So basically, what abusers are doing is “self medicating”.

If you feel you or someone you know is self medicating with drugs, I encourage you to seek help. Get a lab test and get your body and brain chemicals balanced to help solve your problem.

More information about the scientific study is available at the Archives of General Psychiatry: http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org