A dynamic, multifactorial model of alcohol, drug abuse, and crime: linking neuroscience and behavior to toxicology

Abstract

Although there is increasing recognition that many dysfunctional behaviors and diseases require multifactorial explanations that integrate biological and socio-cultural variables, such an approach requires fundamental conceptual changes. To explain geographical and temporal variations in alcohol and drug abuse and in criminal behavior, we propose a dynamic, multifactorial model that integrates findings in neurobiology and social science with toxicology. This model is based on a sequence of probabilistic relationships. (1) Some individuals are potential alcoholics or drug addicts for genetic or developmental reasons that may also be associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), antisocial personality, or other traits that have been linked to criminal behavior. (2) Uptake of lead, manganese, and other neurotoxic substances from the environment can downregulate dopamine, glutamate, serotonin, and other neurotransmitters necessary for learning and normal impulse control. (3) Uptake of lead and other neurotoxins is increased by dietary deficits in calcium, zinc, and iron which in turn are associated with poverty, stress, and lactose intolerance. (4) Additional environmental factors, such as silicofluoride use in treatment of public water supplies, also increase uptake of lead. (5) Fetal and childhood uptake of lead and other toxins is associated with both developmental and learning deficits and with continued neurotoxicity during teenage and young adult years. (6) Alcohol and drug abuse can function as crude self-medication to compensate for downregulation of serotonin, dopamine and other affected neurotransmitters. (7) Lead neurotoxicity increases the market for alcohol and hence the total number of active alcoholics. (8) This increase in a community's market size reflects prolonged recruitment of potential alcohol users (higher average age of first use of alcohol is correlated to size of market for alcohol). (9) Larger markets for alcohol lead to larger markets for cocaine and crack. (10) These linked markets are a key factor in different rates of crime, since higher average age of first use of alcohol, of cocaine, or of crack is associated with a higher rate of crime and more criminals who were using cocaine or crack at the time of their offense. When otherwise unexplained geographical and historical differences in rates of crime are analyzed from this perspective, environmental pollution and the use of silicofluorides in water treatment seem to play a critical role in triggering social dysfunction. This dynamic, multifactorial approach may provide a model for studying the epidemiology of other dysfunctional behaviors and diseases, such as ADD/ADHD, asthma, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease, which have been traced to varied combinations of genetic vulnerabilities, toxic metals, developmental insults, and social stresses.