Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Commentary

Neurogenetics and Nutrigenomics of Neuro-Nutrient Therapy for Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS): Clinical Ramifications as a Function ofMolecular Neurobiological Mechanisms

¹Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida, McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, Fl, 100183, USA

²Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Anatomy & Neurobiology, Boston University of School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA

³Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, MD and Amen Clinics, Baltimore, MD, 21202, USA

⁴LifeStream, Inc. St. Louis, MO, 63390, USA

⁵Department of Nutrigenomic, LifeGen, Inc. San Diego, CA, 92101, USA

⁶Department of Holistic Medicine, G&G Holistic Addiction Treatment Center, North Miami Beach, Fl, 33162, USA

⁷Integrative Life Center of Nashville, Tennessee, 37221, USA

⁸Center for Genomics and Applied Gene Technology, Institute of Integrative Omics and applied Biotechnology (IIOAB), Nonakuri, Purbe Medinpur, West Bengal, 721172, India

⁹Northwest Resources, Olympia, Washington, 98502, USA

¹⁰Path Foundation NY, New York, 10001, New York USA

¹¹Malibu Beach Recovery Center, Malibu Beach, California, 9026, USA

¹²Dominion Diagnostics, North Kingstown Rhode Island, 02852, USA

¹³Department of Management Science and Statistics, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, 78230, USA

¹⁴Medical Director for Marion County Methadone Clinic, Salem Oregon, 97301 USA

¹⁵Global Integrated Services Unit University of Vermont Center for Clinical & Translational Science, College of Medicine, Burlington, VT, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Kenneth Blum, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and McKnight Brain Institute
University of Florida
College of Medicine
PO Box 103424 Gainesville
Florida, USA, 32610-3424
Tel: 619-890-2167
Fax: 352-392- 9887
E-mail: drd2gene@gmail.com

Received September 30, 2012; Accepted November 11, 2012; Published November 27, 2012

Citation: Blum K, Berman MO, Stuller E, Miller D, Giordano J, et al. (2012) Neurogenetics and Nutrigenomics of Neuro-Nutrient Therapy for Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS): Clinical Ramifications as a Function of Molecular Neurobiological Mechanisms. J Addict Res Ther 3:139. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000139

Copyright: © 2012 Blum K, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

In accord with the new definition of addiction published by American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) it is well-known that individuals who present to a treatment center involved in chemical dependency or other documented reward dependence behaviors have impaired brain reward circuitry. They have hypodopaminergic function due to genetic and/or environmental negative pressures upon the reward neuro-circuitry. This impairment leads to aberrant craving behavior and other behaviors such as Substance Use Disorder (SUD). Neurogenetic research in both animal and humans revealed that there is a well-defined cascade in the reward site of the brain that leads to normal dopamine release. This cascade has been termed the “Brain Reward Cascade” (BRC). Any impairment due to either genetics
or environmental influences on this cascade will result in a reduced amount of dopamine release in the brain reward site. Manipulation of the BRC has been successfully achieved with neuro-nutrient therapy utilizing nutrigenomic principles. After over four decades of development, neuro-nutrient therapy has provided important clinical benefits when appropriately utilized. This is a review, with some illustrative case histories from a number of addiction professionals, of certain molecular neurobiological mechanisms which if ignored may lead to clinical complications.

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