A report that got published in the Journal Science Translational Medicine is said to have found the reason for which alcoholics have too much of alcohol. According to the study, alcohol releases endorphin that makes person happy.

Lead researcher Jennifer Mitchell, who is the Clinical Project Director at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco, said that alcohol releases the so-called “feel good” brain chemicals in two parts of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens and the orbitofrontal cortex.

The former part is involved with the addictive behavior and later part of the brain handles decision making process, said Mitchell. In order to reach at above conclusion, researchers enrolled 13 heavy drinkers for the experiment.

They asked them to have two to three drinks daily to see the immediate effect of the alcohol in the brains. In order to do that the researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) method. After assessing them, the researchers have found that alcohol leads to release of endorphin.

To check whether or not this pattern remains with social drinkers, Mitchell enrolled another 12 not so heavy drinkers. After assessing them she found that there was not a major difference between both the groups. Though there is no doubt that heavy drinkers has more advantage than social drinkers, as endorphin release increases with the consumption.

Mitchell said, “People say they don’t like how the drug makes them feel, but now that we know that alcohol releases endorphins, we believe that we can make a better naltrexone, and it could be something that people who need help would want to take”.

There is great possibility that a drug would be created to control the addiction of heavy drinkers as it has been known that excessive release of endorphin is not safe for the health.