 A
French medical researcher will present new data that says caffeine is not addictive for
most people, at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest
scientific society. At doses of one to three cups of coffee a day, a fairly typical
consumption for Americans, caffeine has no affect on the area of the brain involved with
addiction, dependence and reward, claims Astrid Nehlig, Ph.D., research director at the
Strasbourg, France, laboratory of INSERM, the French National Health and Medical Research
Institute.
Nehlig recently completed a study with laboratory animals, which confirmed that
caffeine consumed in moderation contributes to increased alertness and energy but does not
bring about dependence at those levels. Caffeine appears to act differently from
amphetamines, cocaine, morphine or nicotine, Nehlig says. Even at low doses, these drugs
trigger functional activity in the shell of the nucleus accumbens, the part of the brain
responsible for addiction, she says. It would take the equivalent of about seven or more
cups of caffeinated coffee consumed in rapid succession to begin to activate this portion
of the brain. Even then, she adds, "activation of the circuitry of addiction and
reward occurs only at high doses of caffeine, which probably induce already adverse
effects."
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