673 Dr. Nora Volkow — Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
This is a OPEN AI summary of the Tim Ferriss Podcast #673- visit www.TinyTim.blog for more AI summaries, or www.Tim.blog for the official Tim Ferriss Podcasts.
Dr. Volkow talks about her early interest in science, and how her father encouraged her to pursue it. She then talks about her work in addiction, and how she is committed to helping people who are struggling with addiction.
Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, grew up in Mexico City and New York. She is the granddaughter of Leon Trotsky and the daughter of a psychiatrist. She became interested in anatomy and physiology after taking a class in medical school. When she was unable to attend a dissection class due to time constraints, she asked her father if she could bring a corpse home to dissect. Her mother and sisters objected and she was not allowed to do so.
The families of the author and her husband came together due to the Mexican government's offer of asylum to children orphaned by the Spanish Civil War. Her father came to Mexico as a 12-year-old orphan, and her mother came when she was 18 looking for her two brothers. They met and fell in love, had four daughters, and lived in the house where Trotsky was killed. The author is the third generation, and no one has tried to kill her.
Dr. Nora Volkow, a medical student, was offered a scholarship to study in Russia, but her father forbade it. He explained that Stalin had cursed their family and that they could be persecuted for three generations. Dr. Volkow ended up going to school in Mexico City instead. In an interview, Tim Ferriss asked Dr. Volkow about her famous grandfather, Leon Trotsky. Dr. Volkow explained that growing up in her grandfather's house had a big influence on her.
The individual interviewed cites their upbringing as a key factor in their drive to help others and fight injustice. They were instilled with the belief that everyone has a responsibility to make the world a fairer and more just place. This has led them to a career in science, where they hope to use their knowledge to influence policy and help those suffering from substance abuse.
Dr. Nora Volkow's father was a Trotskyist, and she grew up hearing stories of his experiences with Stalinism and the Russian Revolution. Volkow's father was an extraordinary individual who coped with his suffering by using certain mechanisms, one of which was science. Volkow believes that science provides a sense of solidity and objectivity that can be helpful for people who have experienced trauma.
Dr. Nora Volkow's father was very categorical in his thinking and did not want any of his daughters to go into politics. He saw science as an ideal profession because it is driven by a desire to understand the truth in an objective way. Julian Villarreal was a pharmacologist who had a big influence on Dr. Nora Volkow. He introduced her to the field of behavioral neuroscience, which she ended up pursuing as a career.
Julian Villarreal introduced the idea of using quantitative analysis to understand the mechanisms of tolerance and withdrawal associated with opioids. His research was ahead of its time, and no one has yet succeeded in developing an opioid medication that is not addictive and does not produce tolerance or withdrawal. However, the methods he introduced opened up new ways of thinking about these issues for Dr. Nora Volkow.
Julian taught Tim Ferriss that it is important to challenge oneself and think differently in order to be innovative. As a mentor, Ferriss tries to encourage this type of thinking in his mentees by asking them probing questions.
In 1984, Dr. Nora Volkow left NYU for an assistant professorship at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. At the time, the hospital did not have any schizophrenic patients, but it did have cocaine addicts. Dr. Volkow adapted her research to study the effects of cocaine on the brain, and she eventually published a seminal paper documenting strokes in cocaine abusers. However, her work was initially ignored by her peers, who did not believe that cocaine could be toxic.
Dr. Nora Volkow is a researcher who has dedicated her career to studying the effects of drugs on the human brain. In the early 1990s, she conducted a study that found evidence that cocaine use could lead to strokes. However, her findings were met with skepticism and rejection from the scientific community. Undeterred, she continued her research and eventually published her paper in a prestigious journal. Her story is a reminder of the importance of perseverance in the face of adversity.
Dr. Nora Volkow believes that science should be guided by data, but that it also has a religious nature to it. She says that once a model is created, it becomes very difficult to change it. And it takes a long, long time for concepts that have been consolidated, as accepted as the truth, to be questioned.
Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, talks about her experience with Demerol after a car accident. She was in a lot of pain and wanted to lose consciousness, but the drug helped her to stay awake and cope with the pain.
The individual recounts their experience with opioids following a hospital stay for a fracture. They describe the intense sense of well-being that the drug produced, despite the pain they were in. They also recount the severe withdrawal they experienced when they stopped taking the drug cold turkey. In conclusion, they emphasize the dangers of opioids and how easy it is to become addicted.
The current state of addiction and overdose crises in the US is one of severe overdose deaths that are difficult to control. The crisis started because of overprescription of opioid medications, and people who should not have had them ended up using them.
The use of fentanyl has increased rapidly in the past few years, due to its potency and low cost of production. Fentanyl is highly addictive and dangerous, and has been mixed with other drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine. In the past year, fentanyl use has increased even more due to the pandemic.
The use of illicit drugs is becoming increasingly more dangerous as they are becoming more potent and easily accessible. Fentanyl is a particularly dangerous drug that is often cut with other drugs, resulting in accidental overdoses. This has become a major problem in recent years, with more and more people dying from drug overdoses.
The War on Drugs has been ineffective and has led to structural racism.
The War on Drugs has been shown to be ineffective and harmful, particularly to black Americans. Tim Ferriss asks about harm reduction strategies, which seek to minimize the negative consequences of drug use rather than criminalizing it.
Psychedelics have shown promise in treating addiction and mental illness, but more research is needed to confirm their efficacy. Dr. Nora Volkow believes that psychedelic-assisted therapy could be a breakthrough treatment for conditions like depression, especially in patients with terminal illnesses.
There is some preliminary evidence that psychedelic drugs may be effective in treating certain mental illnesses, but more research is needed.
There is a risk of suicidal behaviors and suicidality associated with psychedelic drugs, but it is unclear how great the risk is. Psychedelic drugs may be adjunctive therapy, meaning that they are most effective when used in conjunction with traditional therapy. More research is needed to explore the potential risks and benefits of psychedelic drugs.
Dr. Nora Volkow discusses the small size of the current pool of donors for addiction research and the importance of market-based solutions. She also suggests that researchers focus on comparative efficacy studies in order to make their applications more appealing for federal funding.
The study recommends using a very low dose of the psychedelic drug in order to control for a placebo. They explain that it is important to follow all of the guidelines and practices when doing a randomized clinical trial in order to collect accurate data. They also mention that it is crucial to work with the FDA from the beginning to ensure that the clinical trial will be approved.
Researchers are looking at the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs by studying how they affect the brain. They are interested in developing new psychedelic drugs that do not produce hallucinatory experiences, which would make them easier to implement therapeutically.
In a discussion about the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs, Dr. Nora Volkow notes that the drugs seem to have a lasting effect on behavior due to the meaning-making that takes place during the experience. She argues that this should be taken into account in addition to any mechanistic studies that are conducted.
Psychedelic drugs have the potential to help people with substance abuse disorders by strengthening memories and exposing them to new stimuli. However, more research is needed to confirm these effects.
It is not surprising that a single therapeutic compound could be effective for treating multiple addictions, according to Dr. Nora Volkow. She explains that all addictive behaviors share some common elements in the brain, so it makes sense that one medication could address multiple types of addiction. What would be more intriguing, she says, is if we could understand the mechanism by which this works.
The weakening of signaling that associates pleasure with reinforcement for other stimulants and rewards can lead to an artificial need for the drug, just like the need for food. This is similar to pain, where the memory of the pleasure can lead to continued wanting of the drug.
In the podcast, Dr. John Krystal from Yale and Dr. Nora Volkow discuss the potential benefits of ketamine for treating conditions like chronic pain and depression. Dr. Volkow is particularly interested in exploring the potential of psilocybin for treating chronic pain.
Dr. Nora Volkow discusses the potential benefits of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS). TMS is a non-invasive way to administer magnetic currents to the cortex of the brain, which can be used to stimulate or inhibit areas of the brain. DBS is another potential treatment for various neurological conditions.
Deep brain stimulation is an invasive procedure used to treat depression and other diseases. The nucleus accumbens is one of the main targets for this treatment. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and direct electrical current stimulation are other neuromodulation technologies used to treat these diseases. Low-intensity ultrasound is a new technology that shows promise for long-term modification of the brain without damage to tissue.
Researchers are looking at using low-intensity sound waves to treat neurological diseases, addiction, and other mental illnesses. The beauty of this approach is that sound waves can target the nucleus accumbens directly with much greater precision than transcranial magnetic stimulation. Pilot data suggests that a single 10-minute session of treatment can have effects that last for weeks or even months. This opens up the possibility that we may one day be able to cure addiction.
This cutting-edge technology uses high-frequency ultrasound to destroy tissue in a very precise and minimally invasive way. This could be a new treatment for conditions like Parkinson's disease.
This is a conversation between Dr. Nora Volkow and Tim Ferriss about a pilot study involving the use of low-intensity ultrasound to treat opioid addiction. In the study, three out of four patients showed a reduction in anxiety and craving after just one 10-minute session. Dr. Volkow is excited about the potential of this treatment, but emphasizes that more research is needed.
Addiction is frequently comorbid with other psychiatric disorders, most notably anxiety, depression, and suicidality. Dr. Volkow stresses the importance of addressing these comorbid conditions in order to enable recovery. She also points out that people often turn to drugs as a means of escape from difficult mental states, and that this needs to be taken into account when trying to understand addiction.
This conversation is about the effects of drugs and addiction, and how important environmental factors are to understanding mental illness. The COVID pandemic has made us more aware of the disadvantage experienced by people who are economically unequal or have experienced trauma during childhood.Psychedelic drugs have the potential to be helpful in clinical practice, but it is important that they are accessible to everyone, not just a few. Group treatment may be as effective as, or even better than, individual treatment.
Dr. Nora Volkow discusses the compounding of addiction problems in the US and the potential for new technologies to change the way we think about and treat addiction. She is optimistic about the potential for these technologies to help people with addiction problems.
673) https://tim.blog/2023/05/24/dr-nora-volkow/
