Addiction is not simply a chronic brain disease and considering it as such can limit treatment options and increase stigma, an extensive research review suggests. After decades of research, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology Reinout W. Wiers suggests that while in some extreme cases addition can be considered a chronic brain disease, in most cases it should be considered as biased choice.
According to in-depth research examined in new book A New Approach to Addiction and Choice, portraying addiction as a chronic brain disease reduces confidence in the possibility of lasting change, in both the addict themselves and the therapist. The perception of addiction, in both the scientific community and the general population, has changed over the years. Until the eighteenth century, addiction was considered to be moral issue that could only be 'treated' by punishing the individual.
This idea changed over the years and, since the 1990s, addiction has been described as a chronic brain disease, particularly in the biomedical and neuroscience literature. After a comprehensive literature review, Professor Wiers says that, while there is clear evidence that the brain does change in response to substance use and these changes can indeed make recovery more difficult, this is not enough to class addiction as a chronic brain disease. Although studies show the brain does change under the influence of addiction, the brain changes during often during the course of a lifetime under many di.