The cover story in the March 3rd edition of Newsweek, titled "The Hunt for an Addiction Vaccine," has lots of people talking. It also marks a shift in the study of addiction recovery.

"The addict's brain is malfunctioning, as surely as the pancreas in someone with diabetes. In both cases, 'lifestyle choices' may be a contributing factor, but no one regards that as a reason to withhold insulin from a diabetic. 'We are making unprecedented advances in understanding the biology of addiction,' says David Rosenblum, a public-health professor and addiction expert at Boston University."

New scientific discoveries are helping the medical community better understand how an addicted brain functions, which means that medications could be developed to block a drug's effect on the brain. Read more at HealthNewsDigest.com.

Labels: addictions, treatment_programs, vaccine