Kavya Mohankumar³, Kenneth Blum^1-6,20*, Abdalla Bowirrat⁶, Albert Pinhasov⁶, Kyriaki Z Thanos⁷, Panayotis K Thanos^6,8, Igor Elman^66,9, Alireza Sharafshah¹⁰, Kai-Uwe Lewandrowski^11-13, Paul R Carney¹⁴, David Baron^2,15, Catherine A Dennen¹⁶, Brian Fuehrlein¹⁷, Milan Makale¹⁸, Keerthy Sunder¹⁹, Foojan Zeine²⁰, Nicole Jafari²¹, Edward J Modestino²², Mark S Gold²³ and Rajendra D Badgaiyan²⁴

¹Department of Psychiatry, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and Dayton VA Medical Center, Dayton, USA
²Division of Addiction Research and Education, Center for Sports, Exercise and Mental Health, Western University Health Sciences, Pomona, USA
³The Kenneth Blum Behavioral and Neurogenetic Institute, Austin, USA
⁴Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
⁵Centre for Genomics and Applied Gene Technology, Institute of Integrative Omics and Applied Biotechnology (IIOAB), Nonakuri, West Bengal, India
⁶Department of Molecular Biology, Adelson School of Medicine, Ariel University, Israel
⁷Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, USA
⁸Behavioral Neuropharmacology and Neuroimaging Laboratory on Addictions, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Clinical Research Institute on Addictions, Jacobs
School of Medicine and Biosciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, USA
⁹Department of Psychiatry, Harvard School of Medicine, Cambridge, USA
¹⁰Cellular and Molecular Research Center, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran
¹¹Department of Orthopaedics, Fundación Universitaria Sanitas Bogotá D.C. Colombia
¹²Department of Orthopaedics, Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
¹³Division of Personalized Pain Therapy and Education, Center for Advanced Spine Care of Southern Arizona, Tucson, USA
¹⁴Division Pediatric Neurology, University of Missouri, School of Medicine, Columbia, MO, USA
¹⁵Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medcine, Palo Alto, CA
¹⁶Department of Family Medicine, Jefferson Health Northeast, Philadelphia, USA
¹⁷Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, USA
¹⁸Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, USA
¹⁹Department of Medicine, University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, Riverside, CA, USA
²⁰Department of Applied Clinical Psychology, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles, USA
²¹Department of Human Development, California State University at Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, USA
²²Department of Psychology, Brain and Behavior Laboratory, Milton, 02186, MA, USA
²³Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
²⁴Department of Psychiatry, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, NY, USA

*Corresponding Author: Kenneth Blum, Department of Psychiatry, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and Dayton VA Medical Center, Dayton, USA

Received: June 19, 2025; Published: August 07, 2025

Abstract

There were 109,600 premature fatalities due to opioid induced overdoses in 2023. Despite a substantial body of research across the globe related to substance and non-substance behavioral addictions, the USA FDA-approved solutions, which include prescribing powerful opioids to reduce harm or the utilization of the narcotic antagonist, Naltrexone, a mu-opioid receptor blocker that works by the concept of ‘psychological extinction” pose significant challenges. The former increase the risk of addiction, while the latter often suffer from poor patient compliance. This has led to an increase in opioid induced fatalities. Our team has continuously promoted early genetic addiction risk testing and pro-dopamine regulation via a nutrigenomic complex known as KB220 with 35 published clinical trials that have shown to induce “dopamine homeostasis” or even “hedonicstasis. Our group developed the statistically validated array of ten reward gene polymorphisms known as Genetic Addiction Risk Severity (GARS) with the primary identification of dopamine dysregulation. Here we review the evidence supporting the coupling of the GARS and KB220 as putative solutions to the ongoing opioid and drug addiction global pandemic. The data supports the use of genetic testing in pain and bariatric clinics, and chemical dependency programs which will help reduce the prescription of opioids and the induction of hedonic homeostasis. This presents a challenging but promising opportunity for the field of addiction psychiatry.

Keywords: Addiction; Dopamine; Reward System; GARS

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Citation

Citation: Kenneth Blum., et al. “Benefits of Incorporating Candidate Genetic Screening for Pre-Addiction Vulnerability in the Face of the Opioid Crisis: An Opportunity for Addiction Psychiatry".Acta Scientific Neurology 8.9 (2025): 21-40.

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Copyright: © 2025 Kenneth Blum., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.