"There is no specific addiction gene but there are genetic variations that can confidently predict a tendency for addiction."
Well there is definitely a genetic component to alcoholism. I won't speak for other addictions,, which can be based on intermittent reward more than on substances, but the evidence for alcoholism being genetic is …
"There is no specific addiction gene but there are genetic variations that can confidently predict a tendency for addiction."
Well there is definitely a genetic component to alcoholism. I won't speak for other addictions,, which can be based on intermittent reward more than on substances, but the evidence for alcoholism being genetic is very strong. For one thing it is attenuated over time (millennia); Chinese have had alcohol longer than anyone and you won't see a lot of Chinese in drunk tanks. Alcoholics tend to have fewer children and so pass on the genes less.
In those societies most recently introduced to alcohol like native Americans it can be so bad that the stuff is banned in some places, with a majority of adults who have tried it end up being hooked.
In a conversation with a coworker who is Navajo I asked why the Navajo didn't open casinos like the other tribes to bring in money. His reply was, "We already have alcohol and drug addiction. Should we add gambling addiction to our misery?" Just one man's opinion but he clearly saw a generalized tendency for addiction in his tribe. But he could have been speaking from stated views of tribal leadership too.
What you wrote is a strong case for alcoholism being specific to alcohol, neither affirming nor denying a generalized tendency for addiction in general.
The people I've been chatting to would say "drugs & alcohol" too. It's not surprising when you think about what their families have been through, and how badly they still get treated sometimes. The Navajo rez has terrible problems with the mess left behind from uranium mining, from what I've been told.
The Standing Rock Sioux are trying to replace their casino income with wind generation - they got good funding for it after the occupation in 2016/17, and North Dakota has a lot of wind to spare. The casino is a good employer there, though, & I didn't hear much about the tribe itself having a gambling problem - they mostly take cash off the townspeople.
Interesting what you can pick up if you're willing to chat with people!
It's widely accepted that there are many illnesses that are made more likely by minor genetic variations, and that alcoholism in particular has a genetic component in some cases, although isolating specific genes is difficult so it may still turn out that it's the product of either nurture or some specifically epigenetic changes.
The indigenous Americans and Australians I have spoken to - some of whom are recovering alcoholics and some are well-respected therapists - say that the problems with drugs & alcohol in indigenous communities are to do with cultural stress & inherited trauma which is again thought to be an epigenetic phenomenon. When parents & grand parents were stolen as children & placed in residential schools where they were abused, starved, beaten for speaking their own language and isolated from their parents, it's not surprising that there are problems in many families with parenting style and skills. They are finding that encouraging people to re-learn their culture is a great help, and they are developing successful treatments for both addiction and PTSD that are a good cultural fit with indigenous beliefs.
Some tribes are trying prohibition but this is generally no more successful than it was in the 20's.
In the early days of colonisation, indigenous societies had no cultural patterns available to them to deal with booze, when the settlers had had centuries to develop coping strategies - almost like the European diseases for which indigenous people had no antibodies.
The Chinese, equally, have been exposed to alcohol for centuries - although they did experience serious problems when the British introduced opium for the first time.
"There is no specific addiction gene but there are genetic variations that can confidently predict a tendency for addiction."
Well there is definitely a genetic component to alcoholism. I won't speak for other addictions,, which can be based on intermittent reward more than on substances, but the evidence for alcoholism being genetic is very strong. For one thing it is attenuated over time (millennia); Chinese have had alcohol longer than anyone and you won't see a lot of Chinese in drunk tanks. Alcoholics tend to have fewer children and so pass on the genes less.
In those societies most recently introduced to alcohol like native Americans it can be so bad that the stuff is banned in some places, with a majority of adults who have tried it end up being hooked.
In a conversation with a coworker who is Navajo I asked why the Navajo didn't open casinos like the other tribes to bring in money. His reply was, "We already have alcohol and drug addiction. Should we add gambling addiction to our misery?" Just one man's opinion but he clearly saw a generalized tendency for addiction in his tribe. But he could have been speaking from stated views of tribal leadership too.
What you wrote is a strong case for alcoholism being specific to alcohol, neither affirming nor denying a generalized tendency for addiction in general.
The people I've been chatting to would say "drugs & alcohol" too. It's not surprising when you think about what their families have been through, and how badly they still get treated sometimes. The Navajo rez has terrible problems with the mess left behind from uranium mining, from what I've been told.
The Standing Rock Sioux are trying to replace their casino income with wind generation - they got good funding for it after the occupation in 2016/17, and North Dakota has a lot of wind to spare. The casino is a good employer there, though, & I didn't hear much about the tribe itself having a gambling problem - they mostly take cash off the townspeople.
Interesting what you can pick up if you're willing to chat with people!
It's widely accepted that there are many illnesses that are made more likely by minor genetic variations, and that alcoholism in particular has a genetic component in some cases, although isolating specific genes is difficult so it may still turn out that it's the product of either nurture or some specifically epigenetic changes.
The indigenous Americans and Australians I have spoken to - some of whom are recovering alcoholics and some are well-respected therapists - say that the problems with drugs & alcohol in indigenous communities are to do with cultural stress & inherited trauma which is again thought to be an epigenetic phenomenon. When parents & grand parents were stolen as children & placed in residential schools where they were abused, starved, beaten for speaking their own language and isolated from their parents, it's not surprising that there are problems in many families with parenting style and skills. They are finding that encouraging people to re-learn their culture is a great help, and they are developing successful treatments for both addiction and PTSD that are a good cultural fit with indigenous beliefs.
Some tribes are trying prohibition but this is generally no more successful than it was in the 20's.
In the early days of colonisation, indigenous societies had no cultural patterns available to them to deal with booze, when the settlers had had centuries to develop coping strategies - almost like the European diseases for which indigenous people had no antibodies.
The Chinese, equally, have been exposed to alcohol for centuries - although they did experience serious problems when the British introduced opium for the first time.