There are genetic factors that simultaneously influence the risk of develop an addictive disorder and a low level of educational success. This is the main conclusion of a study led by scientists from the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), who have discovered that some genetic variants simultaneously predispose individuals to a higher genetic predisposition to both conditions, although it does not clarify whether one causes the other or whether they influence each other. The scientific journal Addiction The results of the research, which involved more than 1,400 people diagnosed with substance use disorders such as cocaine, opiates, cannabis, and sedatives, will be published this Thursday. The researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis of the genetic variants of these individuals, called a genome-wide association study (GWAS), with the aim of identifying variants that simultaneously influence the risk of addiction and educational success. According to the authors, this relationship has been observed repeatedly in studies, but until now there was no solid genetic evidence to explain their correlation. The results of the study have finally identified a set of genetic variants that increase the risk of addiction and are also associated with lower educational attainment. However, these results do not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship—having these genes does not condemn anyone to have problems with drug addiction or in school—but rather a shared genetic risk that interacts with many other factors, such as environment, education, and personal experiences. These genetic variants not only play a significant role in the development of substance use disorders, but have also been linked to poorer health and more unfavorable socioeconomic conditions. Despite the identified genetic overlap, the study does not resolve the direction of the influence between addiction and educational attainment. "Although we found consistent evidence of shared variants, our work cannot determine whether a lower level of education increases the risk of addiction, whether addiction hinders educational attainment, or whether both are true," explains Marta Ribasés, principal investigator of the Psychiatry, Mental Health, and Addictions group at VHI.

He's been using cocaine for 20 years, has hit rock bottom, and wants to quit, but can't. His mother, who no longer lives in Catalonia since her retirement, has traveled over 800 kilometers to help him, as this isn't the first time she's tried unsuccessfully to quit. She found him very thin, "practically emaciated," in a house that's falling apart. "He lives in a hovel, he's 47 years old and doesn't work; he doesn't have the strength to do so. He's sleepy all day and has no willpower whatsoever; the drug has consumed him," laments Paula, who doesn't want to give her real name to protect her privacy and that of her son. At the end of October, she contacted the Vilanova i la Geltrú Drug Addiction Treatment Center (CAS) to start treatment, but they haven't been given an appointment until March, and she doesn't know what will become of her son during these five months before he begins detoxification.

In Catalonia, more than one million people live with some form of mental disorder. The figures call for action: almost one in four people over the age of fifteen report suffering from emotional distress, and among children—aged four to fourteen—7.4% acknowledge having some kind of mental health problem. These figures are part of a global reality. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in four people worldwide will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives. These figures not only highlight the magnitude of the challenge but also directly call upon all of society: we must view mental health as a collective responsibility and act to reverse this trend. It is in this context that the National Mental Health Pact was born, an initiative of the Catalan government that aims to provide a comprehensive, coordinated, and transformative response to one of the major social and health challenges of our time. The agreement promotes a new way of understanding mental health: a cross-cutting approach that puts people at the center and integrates all areas—healthcare, education, social services, and community—with the goal of guaranteeing real and sustainable emotional well-being throughout life.

1. On the first Thursday of July, I have breakfast at the usual bar. There are fewer people than usual, and the waiter, at the moment when he shouldn't be serving espressos or washing spoons, takes his cell phone out of his pocket. Until a customer asks for saccharin, he doesn't take his eyes off the screen. From my terrace, I watch a professional vacuum the bottom of a communal pool. Before rolling back his sleeve, he stops working, takes out his phone, and stares at it for a while. He doesn't answer messages. His finger flips down, page after page, nothing interesting him longer than a sneeze. At the bus stop, the seven people waiting in the full sun curl their necks to look at their phones. The same thing happens in doctor's waiting rooms, at airports, on the subway, at the gym... Nothing they don't know. This is just another day, anywhere. It's the global addiction that has us all hooked.

After almost half a life of addictions, the Argentine musician Maximiliano Calvo He entered a detox clinic. Music, rock and roll, touring, the nightlife, and bad company led him to drugs. He also suffered from a "low self-esteem," which, he explains, he tried to cover up with an "exaggerated ego" to hide his feeling of being "the smallest man in the world." From his first line at 17 until now, at 32, he made a name for himself on the music scene as the opening act for Arcade Fire, Fito Páez, and Roberto Carlos, and, settled in Madrid, accompanying Jorge Drexter. "Outside, I lived with an increasingly louder volume, while inside there was a little voice, my monsters, and I saw myself as a failure," he recalls a few minutes before starting perhaps the most intimate and atypical tour he could have imagined during those years of excess.

In Catalonia 226 people died in 2019 from overdoses, that is, one every two days, or four a week. This is 10% more deaths than the previous year and the highest number since records have been kept: in 2017, 200 died and in 2018, 205. And despite the fact that in the collective imagination overdose is related to injected heroin, more than 80% of deaths from this cause had no sign of injection, but had combined several drugs.

Suddenly, their parents were gone. On Friday 13th March 2020, while we were all locked up at home because of the pandemic, Javier - fictitious name - began his particular closure in Can Ros. His parents had brought him from Madrid deceived, and left him in this therapeutic school so that he could recover from his addictions. He is 17 years old and has been "hooked" on drugs since he was 12, a descent into hell that had dynamited the family relationship. "They gave me letters explaining why my parents had brought me here. At first I didn't accept their motives. Over time, I understood my mistakes and that I had to make amends", he explains.