Alcohol and drugs rewire your brain by changing how your genes work – research is investigating how to counteract addiction’s effects

Here’s some good news. My colleague Edie Sullivan, a world expert on alcohol’s effects on the brain, has studied the process of recovery from addiction and discovered that although some brain changes due to addiction are irreversible, it is possible to detour around these damaged areas by creating new neural networks. This means that although the b

Trauma, social upheaval, and poverty contribute to addiction risk, as drugs become a means of coping and lead to epigenetic changes—heritable changes to the strands of DNA outside of inherited base pairs—affecting gene expression in both an individual and their offspring.

These findings show that a drug like cocaine can alter the brain forever. Similar findings have been shown with other addictive substances, from alcohol to opioids to cannabis.

These findings show that a drug like cocaine can alter the brain forever. Similar findings have been shown with other addictive substances, from alcohol to opioids to cannabis.