Pick your poison: The science of decisions, mood and addiction

Dopamine is thought to play a role in making us feel good when good things happen, particularly when it’s unexpected. It's believed that this “dopamine rush” pushes us to seek out those outcomes again, no matter how bad for us they can be. This can be problematic when “good” is no longer “good enough” and we try to look for “better”. My talk discusses my work in better understanding how dopamine in the brain integrates these signals of “good” (and “bad”) during risky decision making and then how manipulating these signals can translate to safer decision making.

Bipolar disorder coincides with alcohol use disorder at a rate 3-5 times higher than the general population. This co-occurrence alters the course of both disorders and is associated with worse illness outcomes. Yet, we lack sufficient understanding of the mechanisms associated with elevated risk for alcohol use disorder in individuals with bipolar disorder. This presentation will present data suggesting that altered subjective and neural response to alcohol may be one mechanism contributing to greater risk for alcohol use disorder in bipolar disorder.