Epigenetics of addiction

Understanding the intricate physiological and neurophysiological mechanisms that underlie addiction is being improved through epigenetic research. These new insights go beyond existing theories that attribute addiction to a dysregulation of dopamine production in the reward regions of the brain. Substance abuse disorders are complicated biopsychosocial illnesses with gravely detrimental effects on neurocognition in a range of patient groups. These illnesses, which entail obsessive use of legal or illegal drugs despite harmful medical and legal repercussions, appear to be a result of long-term epigenetic and transcriptional changes in rewarding and non-reward circuits of the brain. The accumulating data is consistent with the idea that chronic drug use alters DNA methylation/hydroxy methylation processes and post-translational histone alterations in many brain areas. In studies of cocaine, amphetamine, and opioids use disorders, epigenetic modifications have been observed. This study gives an overview of such changes. The combined results indicate that future therapeutic treatments should concentrate on the creation of medications that target the epigenome to treat addiction illnesses.