A new study is focusing on the neurobiological trail that alcohol and other drugs leave in the brain. “After an individual has had a drug experience, over some period of time — sometimes not very long — their brain is never the same as it was before it had the drug experience,” said Dr. Steven Treistman, professor and vice chairman of the department of neurobiology and interim director of the Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. “Even years after the cessation of drug-taking, that individual is not the same as a naive individual or that person before they had taken the drug.”

Treistman and his research team are trying to determine why an addicted individual feels a strong craving to return to the drug despite a great desire not to. In particular, the researchers are looking at how alcohol affects a brain protein, or channel, that is critical for normal brain function.

So far, the researchers have found that the protein channel becomes less sensitive to alcohol and there is less of it in the brain cell membrane. As a result, alcohol’s effects become more powerful and with less of the protein around, the brain remains “normal” in the presence of alcohol.

When a person tries to stop drinking, the brain has too few channels. As a result, the person feels terrible, but has learned that drinking alleviates the pain. A similar cycle occurs with drugs.

Researchers determined from this cycle that, instead of drinking with pleasure as the goal, an alcoholic drinks to relieve the pain experienced from not drinking.

“If we can understand the molecular basis, we can understand which kind of therapeutic we need to combat the action of the drug,” Treistman said. “I honestly believe we need a therapeutic drug that will block the craving.