RIA director stresses understanding when dealing withdrug addiction

Kenneth Leonard.

Kenneth Leonard, Director of the Research Institute on Addictions and CTSI board member

Published June 21, 2017 This content is archived.

An article in Health about a report from the Los Angeles coroner’s office that found that actress Carrie Fisher had multiple drugs in her system when she died after suffering a heart attack in December. The story features an extensive interview with Kenneth Leonard, who is the director of UB’s Research Institute on Addictions and a CTSI board member.

He said drugs and alcohol have the capacity to change the structure of the brain so that they become more appealing and more important to the user. “And these changes are long-lasting,” he said. “We don’t’ know if they’re ever reversed, or if they are, what kind of timeframe it’s in. The years of taking any of those drugs have implications for the way the brain develops long-term.”

Read more here.