Written by 
These massive imaging machines allow researchers to look inside the brain at what areas are active when we are feeling certain emotions, like anger.
As an ex-addict/alcoholic – and yes, that is how I choose to label myself – anger used to be a chronic problem. In fact even today I react with more anger on some days than I do on others to perhaps the very same issues. I have long been a proponent of Dual Diagnosis to the degree that I believe up to 85% of addicts and alcoholics have a co-existing problem related to serotonin and dopamine levels. This could mean they have an undiagnosed problem with depression, bipolar 2 disorder, ADHD or many other common problems that afflict upwards of 15% of the general population. I think we found an escape from the “pain in our brain” that resulted from such a disorder, and that led many of us to become addicted to that means of escape.
Rather than look at this as a “double curse”, you can look at it as a blessing. If your addiction is related to a primary problem like depression, my contention is that you will find out as I did when my Bipolar 2 Disorder was treated, that the cravings to escape will disappear also. For an addict who has no such disorder, taming the cravings can be a much more difficult proposition. For me it took about a year of trying different cocktails of drugs such as antidepressants and ADHD meds to feel mostly “normal” again. As these problems I had were treated, not only did the deep fears of entering a depression mostly disappear, but so did my cravings. That, friends, is a blessing — trust me. If you have never been to a good doctor who is both a psychiatrist and an addictionologist – do yourself a favor and get to one. It might just change your life. Here is a great article about what I believe will lead to significant discoveries in the areas of addiction and alcoholism – chemical imbalances in the brain .
To prove my theory about all this, I recently came across a study that looked at people who were deficient in serotonin — which is inextricably tied in with dopamine ( a neurotransmitter which affects or causes all the disorders mentioned above). It would make sense if serotonin levels control dopamine levels, as has been suggested medically, and that people who fall into the category of addict or alcoholic would have serotonin level problems also.
The study below simply suggests (or proves) that people who have lower levels of serotonin can have severe anger problems. They have even come up with a new disorder called Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED). This article delves into it a bit more deeply and again explains why we, as current or ex-addicts/alcoholics may have brains that work a little differently than anybody else’s. This is not a supposition on my part, because recently alcoholism and addiction have been formally labeled as diseases of the brain.
Here is the study summarized:
(Reuters) – Fluctuating levels of the brain chemical serotonin, often brought on when someone hasn’t eaten or is stressed, affect brain regions that enable people to regulate anger, scientists said on Thursday.
In a study using healthy volunteers, researchers from Britain’s Cambridge University found that when serotonin levels are low, it may be more difficult for the brain to control emotional responses to anger.
Although reduced serotonin levels have previously been linked to aggression, this is the first study to show how this chemical helps regulate behavior in the brain as well as why some individuals may be more prone to aggression.
The researchers behind the work, which was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, hope their findings could help in the search for new treatments for psychiatric disorders where violence and aggression are common symptoms.
For the study, healthy volunteers’ serotonin levels were altered by manipulating their diet. On the serotonin depletion day, they were given a mixture of amino acids that lacked tryptophan, the building block for serotonin. On the placebo day, they were given the same mixture but with a normal amount of tryptophan.
The researchers then scanned the volunteers’ brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as they viewed faces with angry, sad and neutral expressions. They were able to measure how different brain regions reacted and communicated with one another when the volunteers saw angry faces, as opposed to sad or neutral faces.
The results showed that low brain serotonin made communications between specific brain regions of the emotional limbic system of the brain — a structure called the amygdala — and the frontal lobes weaker compared to when serotonin levels are normal.
Using a personality questionnaire, the researchers also analyzed which of the volunteers had a natural tendency to behave aggressively. In these people, the communications between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex was even weaker following serotonin depletion.
“Although these results came from healthy volunteers, they are also relevant for a broad range of psychiatric disorders,” said Luca Passamonti, who worked on the research with colleagues at the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge.
For example, Passamonti said, patients with an condition known as intermittent explosive disorder (IED) typically can have intense, uncontrollable outbursts of violence which may be triggered by cues such as a facial expression of anger.
“We are hopeful that our research will lead to improved diagnostics as well as better treatments for this and other conditions.”
SOURCE: bit.ly/nMUsgi Biological Psychiatry, online September 13, 2011.
Related articles
- New Research Uses Imaging to Show Serotonin’s Link to Anger (drdianehamilton.wordpress.com)
- Serotonin levels affect the brain’s response to anger (sciencedaily.com)
- Why it is hard to control anger at times (news.bioscholar.com)
- On Chemical Imbalances in the Brain (addiction-dirkh.blogspot.com)
- Addiction to Shopping – When Spending Spirals Out of Control (everydayhealth.com)
