Drugs, food, screens and sex: the addicted brain at the UAB's 5th Mental Health Seminar
08/11/2018
According to the Catalan Health Service, in Catalonia alone in 2017 a total of 13,716 drug abuse or dependence treatments were administered, similar to the number administered in previous years. With regard to screen addictions (internet, mobile phone, television, video games, etc.), the World Health Organization affirms that 9% of the world population of video gamers are addicted to playing and this has made the WHO incorporate this disorder into the International Classification of Disorders 2018. Cybersex is present in 38% of cases where there is an addiction to sexual intercourse.
This year's seminar by the CORE in Mental Health will be held under the title of El cervell addicte: l'addicció com a conducta i la conducta com a addicció [The Addicted Brain: addiction as behaviour and behaviour as addition], and will deal with addictions from different perspectives, including recent research projects in both basic and clinical research, and papers on the addiction to drugs, foods, digital technologies and sex.
Early brain development and vulnerability to alcohol consumption, the neurobiology underlying the loss of control in eating addictions, the relationship between ADHD and cannabis, the effects of depression on the cell immunity of patients with alcohol addictions and how to define what is considered a sex addiction are some of the issues which will be discussed.
The final part of the seminar will be dedicated to debating future research and treatment challenges through the eyes of professionals from different sectors. In this sense, the seminar will bring together professionals from university hospitals members of the UAB Sphere: Vall d'Hebron, Germans Trias i Pujol, Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Parc de Salut Mar, Parc Taulí and Dexeus, as well as researchers from the departments of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine, Psychobiology and Methodology of Health Sciences, and the UAB Neurosciences Institute (INc). Specialists from the Clínic and Bellvitge Hospitals will also be attending.