Why addiction hits women differently | Milky Kohno | TEDxPortland
NOTE FROM TED: Research around addiction, the brain, and related sex differences remains complex and an ongoing field of study. For more context, see below.This paper discusses emerging research around the mechanisms underlying sex differences in substance use disorder, including some current limitations and pathways for further research: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10561297/
The specific neurobiological mechanisms behind substance abuse disorder remains complex. While many brain regions are thought to be involved, this paper helped identify a common brain network: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-025-03396-2
For more on why research on different substance abuse disorders and best treatment options can be highly variable, see this paper: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8415637/
Addiction is often judged as a failure of willpower, but the science tells a more complicated and more human story. In this talk, neuroscientist Dr. Milky Kohno shares how growing up around addiction in Hawaii, mentoring a neglected child, and studying the brain changed the way she understood substance use. She explains how trauma, stress, dopamine, inflammation, and sex differences can shape the brain’s vulnerability to addiction, especially for women. By looking beyond the drug use and treating the whole person, we can replace blame with understanding, survival with stability, and stigma with healing. Milky Kohno, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University and a Research Scientist at the VA Portland Health Care System. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from UC Berkeley and completed her PhD in Neuroscience at UCLA, where her dissertation was the first to reveal abnormalities in intrinsic brain activity in methamphetamine use disorder and to clarify dopamine’s role in risky decision-making.
She has since extended her work to uncover neurobiological and immunological biomarkers that can serve as targets for therapeutic intervention for substance use disorders.
Leading the Biomedical Research of Addiction, Imaging, and Neuroscience (B.R.A.I.N.) Lab, Milky's research emphasizes mechanistic neuroscience at neural systems and molecular levels, merging basic science with clinically impactful aims. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx Receive SMS online on sms24.me
TubeReader video aggregator is a website that collects and organizes online videos from the YouTube source. Video aggregation is done for different purposes, and TubeReader take different approaches to achieve their purpose.
Our try to collect videos of high quality or interest for visitors to view; the collection may be made by editors or may be based on community votes.
Another method is to base the collection on those videos most viewed, either at the aggregator site or at various popular video hosting sites.
TubeReader site exists to allow users to collect their own sets of videos, for personal use as well as for browsing and viewing by others; TubeReader can develop online communities around video sharing.
Our site allow users to create a personalized video playlist, for personal use as well as for browsing and viewing by others.
@YouTubeReaderBot allows you to subscribe to Youtube channels.
By using @YouTubeReaderBot Bot you agree with YouTube Terms of Service.
Use the @YouTubeReaderBot telegram bot to be the first to be notified when new videos are released on your favorite channels.
Look for new videos or channels and share them with your friends.
You can start using our bot from this video, subscribe now to Why addiction hits women differently | Milky Kohno | TEDxPortland
What is YouTube?
YouTube is a free video sharing website that makes it easy to watch online videos. You can even create and upload your own videos to share with others. Originally created in 2005, YouTube is now one of the most popular sites on the Web, with visitors watching around 6 billion hours of video every month.
