Citation

Heather N, Best D, Kawalek A, Field M, Lewis M, Rotgers F, Wiers RW, Heim D. Addict. Res. Theory 2018; 26(4): 249-255.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/16066359.2017.1399659

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In February 2014, the journal Nature published an editorial concerned primarily with the attempt by animal rights activists to close down addiction research labs that experimented on animals (Animal Farm 2014). The editorial also stated that drug addiction was ‘a chronic relapsing disease that changes the structure and function of the brain’ and that this was not ‘particularly controversial, at least among scientists’ (p. 5). Derek Heim wrote a letter to the journal protesting against these assertions and, with the assistance of Nick Heather, succeeded in obtaining the signatures of 94 addiction scholars and researchers from around the world. An abbreviated form of the letter was published in Nature (Heim 2014). It disagreed with the one-dimensional portrayal of addiction in the editorial and the claim that this was uncontroversial among scientists, further arguing that ‘substance abuse cannot be divorced from its social, psychological, cultural, political, legal and environmental contexts: it is not simply a consequence of brain malfunction’ (p. 40).

Then, following a vigorous defence of the brain disease model of addiction (BDMA) by its most prominent supporters (Volkow and Koob 2015; Volkow et al. 2016) against criticisms by Hall and colleagues (Hall et al. 2014, 2015), Heim and Heather contacted the letter signatories to ask whether they would be interested in joining a group, to be known as the Addiction Theory Network (ATN), with the aims of opposing the dominant influence of the BDMA and collaborating to develop alternative ways of understanding and responding to addiction. A high proportion agreed and others have subsequently joined. At the time of writing (27 June 2017), membership stands at 91. The network activity consists mainly of a google group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/addictiontheorynetwork but there is also a ResearchGate project https://www.researchgate.net/project/Addiction-Theory-Network and a Twitter account (@AddictTheoryNet).

The exact organisational form and structure the ATN will take and the range of activities it will engage in is still developing and under discussion ...

Language: en