Overview
Psychogenomics is the process of applying genomics and proteomics to understand the effects of biological substrates of normal behavior and of diseases of the brain. Applying psychogenomics to the study of drug addiction will allow for the discovery of genes and proteins directly associated with the control of reward pathways in the brain and their adaptations to drugs of abuse, as well as genes that deal with genetic risk for addiction. Throughout studies in psychogenomics scientists can discover psychotherapeutic medications that act on neurotransmitter receptors or transporter proteins that will be able to provide significant improvements in psychiatric practice and the treatment of addictive disorders.
Many drugs including alcohol, cocaine, or opiates have been see to have high genetic addiction. It had been difficult for scientists to find genes directly associated with addictive behaviors because some addictions may be caused by a slew of a large number of different genes, and not from just a certain type. They are also having difficulty discovering genes because there are very few whole genome-wide scans, so they are having to work on animal models with similar addiction pathways to humans. It has become possible to use animal models to measure addiction for not only acute drug reward but also for addictions similar to human addictions, such as drug seeking and craving (Koob et al., 1998; Self and Nestler, 1998; Wise, 1998).
Scientists have began to study difference diseases such as Alzheimer’s, obesity, diabetes, G-protein-coupled receptors serving as scaffolding proteins, and narcolepsy. Deepening our understanding of certain diseases will allow for significant advancements in diagnosis and prevention.
http://www.flyfishingdevon.co.uk/salmon/year3/psy337DrugAddiction/koob_neuron_vol21.pdf
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/21/21/8324.full.pdf