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Inquiry Part 1
Inquiry Part 1
In todays society, its hard to find a single school that doesnt participate in a D.A.R.E
type program. These programs are educational, warning children as young as kindergarten the
danger of using bad medicine. Every year during a D.A.R.E week, my little brothers
elementary school wears crazy sock, weird hats, and tacky clothes to lighten the spirit of their
week as they learn about taking medicine that isnt theirs and how peer pressure affects choices.
When I was a child I would laugh these weeks off, how could someone let themselves become
dependant or addicted to drugs? I thought it was completely mind over matter, you had to have
let yourself become addicted and you had to want to continue to use drugs, but through personal
When I was seven years old I met my step brother Shane. He quickly became the coolest
(and only) teenager I knew. He and his friends would drive me and my sister around and take us
places. Shane became addicted to opioids and prescription medicine. It changed him, and
because it was almost impossible for me to continue my previous belief that it was a choice. I
watched my brother struggle with his addiction for 5 years before he lost his battle to an
overdose in November of 2016. A lot of people I have talked to have a similar story as me and it
brings to question, why now? Why is this opioid crisis becoming a national epidemic?
As I have learned more through my education, I have learned that there are many aspects
of biology and genetics that relate to the state of a persons mental health. I began to wonder why
most addicts started using when they are teens and how these substances change the pathways
and the genetic markers in cells. If these drugs are affecting the body in a hard science way,
why do we only treat them with psychology? The current treatment plan in America is mostly
still the same twelve steps that were invented in 1935 with some minor upgrades. Every year
there are constant improvements in medical health and if a doctor tried to cure a cold with
medical advice from 1935, they would lose their medical practice. This programs are failing and
how could we expect them to continue to work? I believe that if we spend more time looking at
the genetic and epigenetic factors we could reverse and possibly put an end to addiction
altogether.
Literature Review
The modern day opioid crisis is sweeping across the nation and as it does it is capturing
the attention of many, creating a polarized spectrum of opinions. In 2015 there were more than
33,000 fatal overdoses in the United States, that is approximately 90 fatal overdoses each day
and for every one fatal overdose there are approximately 30 nonfatal overdoses. (Hsu 2017) In
2017 this crisis has reached a pinnacle point, so much so that New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie released a report calling for the president to call a State of Emergency on the opioid
crisis. This would allow there to be a decrease price in Naloxone and other overdose reversing
drugs making them widely available (Allen 2017). The increase of availability of Naloxone is
highly controversial because some people view these drugs as a crutch, they mostly stand they
addicts are products of environments. When talking to my mother, Nancie Mandeville, she told
me that she used to be a firm believer that addiction was a choice and that making these drugs
available would only enable addicts. She had this feeling until witnessing addiction in her family,
after this experience said that there is so much more to addiction than choice and now is an
advocate for making Naloxone publically available. (Mandeville, 2017) In an interview David
Sheff on NPR speaks on a book he wrote, David Sheff says that addiction is one of the most
complicated diseases and it is a brain disease. Together they talk about the personal story about
how Nic lost himself in the Methanamine (2013). With addiction rates rising now more than
ever, many scientist are now focusing their research efforts on pinpointing what factors
contribute to addiction.
All mental health, not just addiction, is caused by many factors. Some of which can be
linked to neuroscience and the biology of the brain, as example chemical imbalance or genetic
variation (MacDuffie and Strauman 2017). The stigma placed on the mental health that it is
controllable is a perspective of the past that needs to be changed. Scientists have worked hard to
study and combat all addictions, but there is no change in levels. In the specific case of drug and
substance addiction, the substances actually change the neurochemistry essentially rewiring the
brain. There are predisposing factors that cause a person to have an addictive personality and
these are mostly found with the amount of grey matter in a brain, this also connects it with age.
This is why Dr. Potenza contributes addictions to the younger adolescent generations. Our grey
matter is still developing and we are also still using primary circuitry which when functioning in
parallel loops can cause impulsive behaviors such as addiction (2017). This primary circuitry
controls the bodys response to stress, so when a person is stress the natural release of these
hormones in these loop and remind the brain of the addiction causing the impulsive behavior
(Sinha 2011). Along with looking into the physical structure, we are also beginning to look at
epigenetics. After an interview with Dr. Bullock, a UNCC professor, about the epigenetics of
addiction, she said she believes that we should devote more funds to research. Once more is
known about the precise chemical pathways we could block them, reducing or stopping the
Learning more about the science behind addiction, pharmaceuticals have began
producing more drugs to combat addiction and overdoses. Naloxone and Buprenorphine are two
major drugs that help reverse the effects of overdoses and lessens dependences on opioid. Many
drugs like these people view as a crutch. It reverses overdoses and lessens dependence. In Dr.
Corey Waller opinion these drugs are essential to saving the lives of loved ones and should be
widely available (Allen 2017). Even though they help addicts, there is a lot more questions
about these drugs than answers. Ben Goldacre is a doctor who disagrees with the process of
medical journal publication (2011). He talks about the bias of publication, journals only publish
positive results which makes medicines seem better than they are. In relation to these drugs we
often question their effectiveness, we have several drugs that have been proven in trials to help
reverse overdoses and that are being used, but the numbers of fatal overdoses are still rising.
(Sinha 2011) Overall using drugs that inhibit the mesolimbic dopamine function help addiction
to drugs like opioid, but are limited when it comes to addictions like gambling. That says there
are more underlying contributors to addiction and it is important to find these as well so we can
When looking into the opioid crisis in America, many people acknowledge that it is an
epidemic that is sweeping across the nation. Everyday it seem as though there is a breaking news
headline about how drugs are affecting the world we live in. Before my encounter with
addiction, I was uneducated and could not fathom how people would let a substance control there
live. However, after watching the power of addiction in someone I loved I believe that through
education and research we can minimize damaging effects of opioid addiction. I have chose to
research on how the epigenetics of addicts can create dependence on opioid. This quantitative
data can be used to isolate the precise location of the DNA methylation that occurs after
extended opioid use.Using the information gathered in the my study we can begin to reverse the
effect of opioid on DNA and begin to create a cure for the dependency of addicts. For this study,
I intend to gather a diverse group of participants of the same age group in which some have an
opioid dependency and some have never used opioid and I will map the state of their expressed
genes. I will analyze this data in first to locate the loca of the gene that is affected after persistent
opioid use. Then I will create a timeline of the methylation of the gene from the point in which a
person has never used opioid, to someone that has spend their lifetime using opioids.
This study has two main portions of research. In the first study, I will gather a group of
about 50 opioid addicts and 50 nonusers of the same age group and environment. I would have to
use people living in the same environment and age group because epigenetics can be affected by
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0aYzP4nwlB6tByIvv2PcMWxIJaygsJ0SGWLXx
gqDbGTA_vA/viewform
Though it is impossible to create a sample group with one variable changing while studying
epigenetics, so I will try to limit variation in factors that can be limited using chromatology. I
will map the methylation of the each of the chromosomes while they are in interphase. Mapping
at this point will allow the team of researchers to see the natural state of the chromosomes while
they are expressing genes. Comparing the differences betweening users and nonuser and the
similarity among users. This could help us narrow down what methylation occurs due to opioid
usage. Looking at the differences among the addicts you could find overlay of area that look
similar. There will probably be more than one similar area because they have grown up in the
same geographical region, they are the same age, and share other similarities than the opioid
usage. That is why the control group is important, the non users will provide a comparison to
rule out the epigenomics that does not have to deal with drug usage.
The next step in this study is to use the localized methylated gene to create a timeline of
the stages of methylation. This is a test where will use the fourth question to create more
subgroups for testing. The first group is non drug users, this creates the starting point of the
timeline. The increments of the test groups are every three months the continuing up to years of
addiction. Creating these groups we can look at how the DNA reacts to the histones and how the
histones are introduced. This timeline could track the specific pathways that cause the
methylation of the genes. It will also track how the genes are affected compared to the onset of
mental health. Finally I will gather all my information and present it in a TedTalk in order to
spark the movement of research into the epigenetics of addiction. I believe that if more people
knew about this topic we could reach advancements and learn how to block the pathways and
Conclusion
The research I have conducted is just the tip of the iceberg in the this field. I believe that
with research we can dramatically decrease the addiction rates in America. With this information
I would try to encourage other researchers to face the problem head on. We could find precise
causes and create target solutions. The scientists in this field can work together to fix this
problem.
The next step in epigenomic addiction research is mapping a the process of how this
happens. We can use this pathway to block receptors and try to reverse the damage that is caused
by opioids. With continued research we can undo the damage in recovering addicts and see how
that helps the withdrawal process. This research is nowhere near done, but with help from
scientist and the government the opioid crisis in America could be ended.
Work Cited
Allen, G. (2017, August 02). Should The Opioid Crisis Be Declared A National Emergency?
shots/2017/08/02/541071209/should-the-opioid-crisis-be-declared-a-national-emergency
https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_what_doctors_don_t_know_about_the_drugs_they_p
rescribe
Hsu, A. (2017, August 22). Hospitals Could Do More For Survivors Of Opioid Overdoses, Study
shots/2017/08/22/545115225/hospitals-could-do-more-for-survivors-of-opioid-overdoses-
study-suggests
Macduffie, K. E., & Strauman, T. J. (2017). Understanding Our Own Biology: The Relevance of
Auto-Biological Attributions for Mental Health. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice,
father-and-a-son
doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.05.007
Sinha, R. (2011). New Findings on Biological Factors Predicting Addiction Relapse Vulnerability.
Staff, N. (2013, March 27). David Sheff On Addiction: Prevention, Treatment And Staying
sheff-on-addiction-prevention-treatment-and-staying-clean