SvenskaHi there. I have a day off today and tomorrow. So that means that I have time for writing. Wonderful.
Yesterday it was 10 years since I defended my thesis. Today I am at home writing and tomorrow I will meet my mentor Professor Jörgen Engel. Of course, I think of previous colleagues I have worked with. However, my special thoughts goes to Gun Andersson and Kenn Johannessen whom I worked closely with during several years.
I spent many years to study the neurobiology behind the clinical observation that there is a strong association between smoking (nicotine-acetylcholine) and alcohol consumption. My opponent was, as you know, Professor Agneta Nordberg, and her research area is Alzheimers disease where acetylcholine is an important player.
Above is an illustration (Engel et al. 1992) showing the complexity of the reward profile of alcohol. The text is from my thesis.
Many neurotransmitters, including dopamine, acetylcholine, serotonin et cetera are involved. Also individual factors such as genes, age, hormones and environment (eg stress) determines the outcome of alcohol reward.
It is well known that high alcohol consumption causes a lot of problems in health care and society in general. The last figure I saw was estimated to 130 billion Swedish crowns yearly. A huge amount that I don´t think politicians are aware of.
However, families and relatives carry the largest burden.
Sweden has an interesting history with regard to alcohol. There was something called “motbok” or Brattsystemet (Ivan Bratt) in the 20th century. If you compare the way of alcohol consumption in France and Sweden, you may conclude that; in Sweden you get brain damages (binge drinking) whereas in France you get liver damages (every day drinking).
Since I have an interest in mountains, I had this quotation in my thesis:
“There were many, many fine reasons not to go, but attempting to climb Everest is an intrinsically irrational act – a triumph of desire over sensibility”
From Jon Krakauer´s “Into thin air”, 1997
This is an attempt to explain reward in words.
In my daily personal life I try to think of, and use “A triumph of desire over sensibility”. From a neurobiological perspective: desire is dopamine and sensibility is serotonin.
Je t’embrasse,
Anna