Addiction and brain injuries linked

One of our 'guys who get it' is Dr. Gabor Mate, the Canadian medical researcher who has broken new ground in the realm of addiction study. This week, he is presenting a paper at a professional conference that brings a new perspective to the connection between brain trauma and addictions. Lots of work has been done addressing patients' brain injuries coming ahead of addiction. Now, Dr. Mate's research is showing that many who suffer brain injury had substance issues beforehand. Building on this new understanding, Mate points out the need to look much farther back in individual histories to examine the wide range of risk factors that many children face. At the other end of the spectrum, Mate notes that 80 percent or more of the prison inmates studied had suffered brain injury and refers to another report which noted that people with histories of childhood trauma, abuse and neglect made up nearly the entire justice system population in the United States.