Addiction expert Reinout Wiers: ’The mind often wins, but not always’

Our trainees Maria and Mink, both aged fourteen, talked to brain researcher Reinout Wiers about his discoveries relating to addiction. He learned that automatic processes in the brain play an important role, and that you can overcome them. What is your research about?. 'I do research into addiction in the broad sense. The most common addictions are to alcohol, smoking and cannabis. But at the UvA we also look at things like gambling addiction and addiction to your phone. What changes take place in the brain when someone is addicted and how can we help people to overcome these problems? These are the key questions in our research.' - Why do you find addiction an interesting subject? Do you have personal experience with this? .