Kenneth Blum
Worldwide daily, millions of people are unable to combat their frustrating and even fatal romance with getting high; for some, “high” may be just experiencing feelings of well-being. The neuroscience community conducts and funds, outstanding research using sophisticated neuroimaging and molecular-genetic applied technology to improve understanding of the complex functions of brain reward circuitry that has a key role in addiction symptomatology. While it is widely accepted that dopamine is a major neurotransmitter implicated in behavioral and substance addictions, there remains controversy about how to modulate dopamine clinically to treat and prevent various types of addictive disorders. A prudent approach may be biphasic; a short-term blockade followed by long-term dopaminergic upregulation. The goal of treatment would be to enhance brain reward functional connectivity volume, and target reward deficiency and the stress-like anti reward symptomatology of addiction. Such phenotypes can be characterized using the Genetic Addiction Risk Score (GARS)®. Dopamine homeostasis may thus be achieved via “Precision Addiction Management” (PAM)®, the customization of neuronutrient supplementation based on the GARS test result, along with a behavioral intervention.