The 2nd International Conference on Addiction Medicine and Reward Deficiency Syndrome (ARDS 2017) was held in Baltimore, MD, USA from March 17-19, 2017, unfolding the varied facets of Addiction Medicine – It’s Research and Therapy. This article provides an overview of the invited lectures at the ARDS 2017, organized by United Scientific Group.

The Brain Reward Cascade (BRC) is a dopamine control interaction between neurotransmitters and genes. Any variations in BRC may cause addictive behaviors. Albeit our Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) bias, we discuss facts and fictions behind molecular genetic testing in RDS and Genetic Addiction Risk Score (GARS), which predicts genetic risk for RDS. Legal opioid iatrogenic induced prescription drug abuse is a global endemic. Understanding pain pathways and dopaminergic tone in pain relief provides therapeutic solutions. In 2011, NIDA reported 8.7% of Americans >12 years have used psychoactive drugs within the past month. The CDC reports 127 Americans die daily from narcotic overdoses. Unfortunately, this has now (2017) translated to a 300% increase in American seeking treatment for opioid dependence since 2000. The overall genetic contribution to the variance of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is about 50%, whereby the other 50% is epigenetic. However, each candidate gene evaluated by GWAS is relatively small. Research evidence is supportive of the candidate gene approach termed “GARS” which may have important benefits in not only RDS but Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and dissection of “Cultural Diversity”.

PDF (Download Full text)