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Reply to ‘Addiction as a brain disease does not promote injustice’

Nature Human Behaviour volume 1, page 611 (2017)Cite this article

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Hart replies — I appreciate the interest Bedi et al.1 have taken in my recent publication describing how viewing drug addiction as a brain disease facilitates social injustice2.

Bedi et al. contend that “neuroimaging studies have shown that neurobiological function in SUDs differs markedly from healthy individuals”1. PET studies3,4 are cited in support of this claim. The first study found no differences in dopamine (D2) receptor density or affinity when nine alcoholics were compared with eight controls3. But, even when differences were observed between the groups on a secondary measure — the ratio between D2 receptor density and affinity — data for the majority of the alcoholics looked identical to those collected in controls. In the other study, less striatal dopamine was released in cocaine users than controls4, which could simply reflect adaptation, such as the development of tolerance. It would be a tremendous stretch to argue that these data demonstrate a diseased brain.

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References

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  1. Department of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry, Box 120, Columbia University, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Carl L. Hart

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  1. Carl L. Hart
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Correspondence to Carl L. Hart.

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Hart, C.L. Reply to ‘Addiction as a brain disease does not promote injustice’. Nat Hum Behav 1, 611 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0216-0

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