Nearly 200 students and community members packed Pacific Hall on Wednesday night to hear an addiction expert and University of Oregon alumnus speak about the biology of alcoholism and chemical dependence.
Dr. Vern R. Williams, who currently works at a rehabilitation facility in Newberg, Ore., and whose daughter Erin is a senior at the University, explained that family history is the most reliable indicator of a person’s susceptibility to alcohol and drug abuse, and many people are genetically “pre-wired” for addiction.
When a person uses a drug for the first time, the brain releases chemicals that produce a pleasurable sensation, which the person seeks to recreate by using the drug again, Williams said. After repeated exposure, the brain actually “rewires” in a process called neuroadaptation. This change in brain structure ultimately manifests itself in behavioral changes that characterize addiction, including inability to control one’s use, tolerance and withdrawal symptoms, and continued use of a drug despite the negative consequences.
Williams himself has struggled with addiction in the past, beginning when he was a pre-med student at the University in the 1970s.
“Oftentimes doctors go into fields as a result of their personal experience,” he said. “It becomes more or less a calling.”
Addiction medicine has come a long way since Williams entered the field 10 years ago. The medical community now recognizes addiction as a disorder of the brain’s chemical reward system, as opposed to a moral or ethical problem, transforming the way doctors work with addiction patients.
“It was a new revelation for me, an epiphany,” said Peter Hunter of the first time he heard about Williams’ work on the biology of addiction. “Vern really helps you understand the science of it.” Hunter has been sober for 23 years and now works as a fund raiser for Serenity Lane, a nonprofit drug and alcohol treatment center in Eugene.
Yet despite recent advances, the field of addiction medicine still faces challenges. Williams notes “there are still huge stigma issues” surrounding the treatment of addicts. In addition, some people view the 12-step plan used by Alcoholics Anonymous and other support groups and rehabilitation centers as coercive, mainly due to the increasing popularity of court-mandated treatment. But treatment is most successful when patients enter it voluntarily, said Larry Lombard, a quality assurance manager at Serenity Lane.
“There’s a bright side to addiction,” Lombard said. “It’s called recovery.”
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