"The study compared the brain's response to long-term alcohol drinking in two genetic variants of mice. One strain lacked the gene for a dopamine receptor, which produces feelings of pleasure and reward. The other strain was genetically normal.
In the dopamine-receptor-deficient mice, long-term alcohol drinking resulted in significant biochemical changes in areas of the brain well know to be involved in alcoholism and addiction."
These findings may help explain how someone's genetic profile can interact with the environment to produce these changes only in some individuals, but not in others with a less vulnerable genetic profile. The work supports the idea that genetic screening could provide individuals with valuable information relevant to understanding risks when deciding whether or not to consume alcohol."
Further research on the interaction between genetic and the environment will increase the understanding of addiction. This information will be imperative to the public and will help people make more informed decisions about their behaviors"
Although this does highlight a genetic link between addictive behaviour and alcohol, it does make me wonder how much we are controlled by our genes, and whether or not our free will can be compromised by our genetic makeup. Perhaps a gene would not make addiction unavoidable, but it would increase a propensity towards it. Should a person, genetically designed to become addicted to alcohol for go alcohol entirely, or is it about how we choose to behave with this propensity in mind?
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Thursday, 21 October 2010
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This is our first attempt to join the exciting world of blogging and bring to you all the fresh and hot news about the world of psychology and, of course, about your favourite training company. This is our new enterprise and we are finding our way in this mysterious world of blogging cautiously (but surely...) :-)
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We are hoping to move our popular SDS Delegate Debate into this blogging format in the future and looking forward to lively discussions here with you. We are planning to start with publishing already existing SDS Delegate Debates — with comments received from you. Then we'll move to the current news as well as will run new delegate debates there.
Feel free to leave comments to any of the posts — whether they are old debates, the news or new debates. As you can guess — every blogger loves his readers and LIVES for the comments. :-) We are just the same. You don’t need to register in order to be able to comment. You can leave your feedback as “Anonymous”, however, may we ask you to sign you name (or nick) at the end of your comment (even if you are commenting without logging in) so that we know how to address you.
Another useful tool that SDS Blog provides us with is availability of Polls that enable us to find out your views about various subjects. Polls are located on the left panel of the page and updated regularly. Please feel free to vote. You can see the results of each poll by clicking the button "Results".
If you wish to register — nothing can be easier — you just open a Google account — most of you, surely, already use one.
Your comments are read by SDS Consultants regularly and — in many cases — replied to.
The blog is moderated — mainly to protect you and other readers from spam and irrelevant comments.
All posts are tagged — hopefully it'll help you to find your way around there.
Wish us luck and please join the list of our followers.
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