Illness and changes that occur in the brain all can be factors in why some people get addicted to drugs and alcohol, a top national researcher said in an Aspen Institute Spotlight Health seminar Saturday.

There is a common belief that people become addicted to something because they enjoy the feeling they get from it, but the biological process of losing control over one's behavior is more complex than that, said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in a session titled "oeThe Biology of Addiction - Why Do We Get Hooked?"

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