About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about the efficacy of using drug therapies to treat drug addictions, focusing in particular on: (i) the fact that, due to the brain’s adaptation to the effects of drugs, simply removing the drug from an addicted person’s system is not always an effective or even viable option for that person to recover from the addiction; (ii) reducing drug intake over time in a gradual way as one method of ‘weaning’ a person off of a particular drug; (iii) a profound change in the brain of someone addicted to heroin meaning that simply abstaining from that drug is not often a viable solution to their addiction; (iv) one solution to ‘weaning’ a person off of heroin being to provide them with less potent, but similar drug alternatives, to gradually return their brain’s sensitivity to pain and discomfort to a normal level; (v) methadone being a typical drug used to help heroin addicts recover; (vi) the habitual links to heroin administration in addiction rendering methadone, which is swallowed, less effective than it could be at replacing heroin; (vii) the provision of less heroin to an addict as an alternative method of ‘weaning’ them off of the drug, a method commonly met with resistance from the clinical community.

About the lecturer

Dr Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist, author and honorary research associate in the Centre for Medical Education at Cardiff University. Dr Burnett’s research interests are in neuroscience, science communication and psychology. Some of Dr Burnett’s recent books include Psycho-Logical (2019) and Why Your Parents Are Driving You Up The Wall And What To Do About It (2019).