Do SNPs Underlie Drug Abuse and Cardiac Disease Comorbidity?

The comorbid occurrence of substance abuse and medical illnesses is not surprising. The central role of the brain in controlling the body function particularly the heart; make it logical that brain dysfunction increases the risk of cardiac dysfunction simultaneously or sequentially. This is called comorbidity. Traditional monodisciplinary approaches in both neurological and cardiovascular fields have led to a lack of understanding of the brain heart link, however; the relation has been described as old as 150 years. A Better understanding of a common genetic, environmental and neural basis of comorbid diseases will offer avenues to improve prevention and treatment efforts for both disorders. This book provides a new insight into how genetic pathways could contribute to comorbid drug abuse and myocardial ischemia via the changes at the level of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The hypothesis will help to discover the association between investigated polymorphic sites and each disease status and comorbid condition and should be especially useful to researchers in neuroscience, cardiovascular and neuro-cardiology fields.