Drug addiction plagued society for centuries since its discovery. Primarily used to relieve pain and other bodily discomfort, opioids are the most abused drugs today. Different types of research look for various treatment methods to effectively end addiction for good. One recent study shows that gut hormones hold the key to treat this debilitating disorder.

Hormones

Hormones signal the body for all kinds of bodily function. The gut hormones which signal the body in a state of hunger hold the very key to treat drug and alcohol addiction.  Experts from the Society for the Study Ingestive Behavior believed that these hormones could help with the intense drug cravings. These are the exact hormones responsible for overeating and obesity. They theorize that the gut hormones can treat drug addiction.

The cycle of thirst and satisfaction

Gut hormones dictate the body how it needs to consume food and water. Drugs like meth and alcohol affect the same circuits in the brain as hunger.  And gut hormones control these emotions similar to intense drug cravings.

FDA approved drugs

Many expressed optimism about this new theory. If they can suppress gut hormones it can prevent drug cravings and relapse during treatment sessions. Since many of these drugs received FDA approval, it could expedite the process of using it or integrating it into drug treatment programs.

“Hormones that signal the body’s state of hunger and fullness could be the key to new treatments for drug and alcohol addiction. That is the consensus of an expert panel convened this week at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study Ingestive Behavior, the leading international research conference on food and fluid intake. Gut hormones have received considerable attention from scientists seeking to understand overeating and obesity, which led the panelists to discover that those hormones are also involved in addiction. They expressed optimism about the potential for rapid progress toward new addiction treatments, since several drugs that affect these hormones are already approved or in the FDA pipeline.

“Hormones from the gut act in the brain to modulate dopamine signaling, which controls decisions to seek out rewards,” explained Dr. Mitchell Roitman, University of Illinois-Chicago neuroscientist. That explains how food and water become more or less rewarding based on a person’s state of hunger, fullness, or thirst. Since drugs like cocaine and alcohol act on those same dopamine circuits in the brain, gut hormones could potentially turn their rewarding effects up or down in the same fashion.”

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