• The brain's dopamine system is particularly vulnerable to activation by addictive substances.
• New research examines the influence of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) on the dopamine system.
• Findings indicate that variants of the BDNF gene may not only play a role in a person's committal of violence while intoxicated, but may also play a role in vulnerability to alcohol withdrawal-associated delirium tremens.

Among the many genes that may contribute to an individual's susceptibility to alcoholism, those in the dopamine system are of special interest because addictive substances can activate this system. In particular, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) can influence both dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitters, which are heavily linked to addiction. New findings, published in the November issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, suggest that variants of the BDNF gene may not only play a role in a person's committal of violence while intoxicated, but may also play a role in vulnerability to alcohol withdrawal-associated delirium tremens.

"The cell bodies of the dopamine system originate in the ventral tegmental area and send projections to the dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbens and basal forebrain," said Sachio Matsushita, chief of psychiatry at the National Hospital Organization in Kanagawa, Japan and first author of the study. "Alcohol can activate this system. For example, alcohol consumption increases dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens from ventral tegmental neurons. Furthermore, animal studies have shown that BDNF influences both dopamine and serotonin levels." These and other results led Matsushita and his colleagues to investigate the role of BDNF in certain characteristics of alcoholics.

Alcoholic subjects consisted of 377 male Japanese inpatients who were hospitalized between January 1996 and June 1998. Researchers used structured interviews to
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14-Nov-2004