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Drug Addicts Tracked Via GPS to Examine Environment and Addiction

by Amar Toor on April 23, 2010 at 09:19 AM

drug addict gps trackingWe've always been told that addiction of any kind is a condition that stems from the brain. Drugs, alcohol or caffeine exert a specific effect on both the brain and the body, the latter of which dictates subsequent consumption. But how much of an addict's behavior can be explained simply in terms of where he or she hangs out? That's the question that National Institute on Drug Abuse researcher David Epstein seeks to answer in a new study on recovering Baltimore's heroin addicts.

Epstein and his colleagues have begun tracking 25 heroin addicts, each of whom is given a small GPS device that keeps track of their whereabouts. According to CNET, patients are also given special PDAs that beep throughout the day with a set of multiple choice questions about their drug use, environs and stress levels. The GPS and PDA data are recorded, and are used to construct a map; where each person went and where they got high.

So far, the early results seem to support Epstein's hypothesis that surroundings play a role in drug use. Although the first participant spent the majority of his time in low-crime, high-income areas, the majority of his time spent shooting up was in high-crime, low-income areas. As the study progresses, Epstein speculates that he and his team may eventually be able to reconceptualize addiction as an environmental disorder, and begin mapping out metropolitan areas of especially high risk to recovering addicts. "Maybe we can broaden the focus to see that addiction is a brain disease, but it is also an environmental disease, and maybe you can intervene on an environmental level," Epstein explains.

Epstein's early findings, however, don't imply that drug addiction is any less of a neurological disorder. If a recovering addict is hanging out around active addicts, or in areas where they used to shoot up, it would make sense for him or her to use again, in the same way that hanging around smokers or alcoholics only encourages similar behavior. A certain neighborhood or hangout may trigger memories of drug abuse, but the vehicle for these environmental connotations is none other than the human brain. By red-flagging high risk areas, doctors can help patients avoid pitfalls, but that seems like more of a remedy to be used on the road to recovery, as opposed to a real cure. [From: CNET]

Tags: drug addiction, DrugAddiction, drugs, gps, national institute on drug abuse, NationalInstituteOnDrugAbuse, study, top, tracking, web

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