NIEHS Conference
September 19 & 20, 2005
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
The goals of this conference are to
Develop a research agenda that will define the relationship between addiction and chemical intolerance/susceptibility and advance scientific understanding of the biological underpinnings that appear to be shared by these areas
Foster interagency research collaborations between NIEHS, NIAAA and NIDA by bringing governmental scientists together with university researchers in addiction and toxicology to open a new window between these fields
The relationships between addiction and chemical intolerance will be explored in four sessions: clinical parallels, animal models, genetics/genomics/proteomics, and neuro-imaging.
Evidence from more than a dozen countries suggests that certain, presumably more susceptible, individuals develop chemical, food, alcohol, caffeine, and drug intolerances following an identifiable environmental exposure event, e.g., to solvents, pesticides, indoor air contaminants and other environmental toxicants. Subsequently, affected individuals‚ responses to everyday inhalants and ingestants bear a striking resemblance to those observed in drug and alcohol addiction, including debilitating multi-system–symptoms especially CNS symptoms, intolerances for structurally unrelated substances (paralleling cross-addiction), stimulatory and withdrawal symptoms, and cravings.
Drug addiction and chemical intolerance (or “abdiction” – “ moving away from” the substance) appear to share a common underlying dynamic, one that suggests a new disease paradigm that has been called "Toxicant-induced loss of tolerance" in the field of environmental health. Toxicant – induced loss of tolerance (TILT) appears to bridge the gap between addiction and abdiction and may help explain a wide variety of chronic illnesses. Questions to be addressed by participants in this conference include: Can both addiction and chemical intolerance result from a fundamental breakdown in innate tolerance, leading to amplification of biological effects, particularly withdrawal symptoms? Do addictive drugs and environmental pollutants initiate an identical disease process? Once this process has begun, do both addictants and pollutants trigger symptoms and cravings? Answers to these questions have the potential to transform current thinking in medicine, psychology, psychiatry, and toxicology.
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