After 30 years, scientists prove why alcohol is fun

Drinking alcohol makes people feel better because it produces the same chemicals in the brain as exercising and laughing, a study has proved for the first time.

Alcohol is addictive because it releases endorphins, which are the body’s way of making us feel pleasure and reward, the researchers showed.

The stress and pain-relieving proteins are naturally released in the brain and other tissues, producing similar effects to opiates such as morphine.

Brain scans conducted to show the immediate effects of alcohol on the brain provided the first direct evidence to support scientists’ belief that it triggers the release of endorphins.

The discovery of the particular brain regions where the endorphin release takes place could help scientists develop new treatments to help people overcome alcohol addiction.

Dr Jennifer Mitchell of the University of California San Francisco, who led the study, said: “This is something that we’ve speculated about for 30 years, based on animal studies, but haven’t observed in humans until now.

“It provides the first direct evidence of how alcohol makes people feel good.”

Researchers conducted positron emission tomography (PET) scans on the brains of 13 heavy drinkers and 12 non-drinkers immediately after they drank alcohol. Their findings, published in the Science Translational Medicine journal, showed that alcohol caused endorphins to be released in the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex brain regions.

In all of the volunteers, larger quantities of endorphins released in the nucleus accumbens were linked to increased feelings of pleasure.

Increased levels of endorphins released in the orbitofrontal cortex were linked to a more pronounced feeling of intoxication in people who were heavy drinkers, but not in non drinkers, the study showed.

Dr Mitchell said: “This indicates that the brains of heavy or problem drinkers are changed in a way that makes them more likely to find alcohol pleasant, and may be a clue to how problem drinking develops in the first place.

“That greater feeling of reward might cause them to drink too much.”

12th January,2012.