Kenneth Blum


Kenneth Blum is an American scientist who has studied neuropsychopharmacology and genetics. Until 1995 he was a professor of pharmacology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Blum originated the term "reward deficiency syndrome". There is no consensus among addiction researchers that empirical evidence exists to justify such a concept. He holds multiple patents relating to genetic testing and treatment for the supposed syndrome that have been licensed through various different corporations.

Academic background

Blum received his B.S. in pharmacy from Columbia University in 1961, his M.S. in medical science in 1965 from the New Jersey College of Medicine, and his Ph.D. in pharmacology in 1968 from the New York Medical College. Blum completed post-doctorate research in psychopharmacology at the Southwest Foundation for Research and Education. He also completed a fellowship in pharmacogenetics under Gerald McClearn at the University of Colorado College of Pharmacy in 1977. He retired in 1995 from his position as professor at the Department of Pharmacology, Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, University of Texas.

Research

Blum collaborated on a study that found a correlation between an allele in the dopamine D2 receptor and alcoholism in a post-mortem study of brain tissue from 35 alcoholics and 35 non-alcoholics. Blum believed his work to be of broader scope, calling this gene a "reward gene" which covers other addictive behaviors including drug addiction, smoking, overeating, and pathological gambling.

Reward deficiency syndrome

Blum originated the concept of reward deficiency syndrome in 1996. The term refers to an inborn chemical imbalance that alters the intercellular signaling in the brain's reward process and can manifest itself as one or more behavioral disorders. This syndrome claims to involve a form of sensory deprivation of the brain's pleasure mechanisms that can be expressed in relatively mild or severe forms, which result an inability to derive reward from ordinary, every day activities. The term has been applied to a wide variety of addictive, obsessive and compulsive behaviors including substance and process addictions, personality and spectrum disorders. There is no consistent evidence to validate any such syndrome. "Reward deficiency syndrome" is not a medically recognized disorder: The diagnostic validity of RDS has not been recognized by the American Psychiatric Association in its diagnostic manual, the DSM.

Commercial activities

Blum is the editor-in-chief of Journal of Reward Deficiency Syndrome and Addiction Science and founded the company that publishes it, United Scientific Group. Blum was also editor-in-chief of OMICS Publication Group's Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy from 2013 to 2015. Both United Scientific Group and OMICS Group are featured on Beall's list and are widely regarded as predatory open-access publishers.
Blum has received patents for the use of dietary supplements to treat RDS. Blum licenses these patents through his company Synaptamine, Inc., which is incorporated in Austin, Texas. Supplements marketed in this way include Synaptamine, SyntaptaGenX, and Synaptose. Synaptamine has been licensed to LaVita RDS, a company based in Lehi, Utah, of which Blum was the chief scientific officer. Synaptamine was subsequently marketed by Sanus Biotech, a company based in Austin, Texas. SynaptaGenX is licensed to NuPathways Inc., for whom Blum acts as chief neuroscience advisor. Blum has also marketed dietary supplements that claim to assist weight loss, including PhenCal and SyntaptaLean. In the past, Blum has sold a variety of supplements and oral sprays through a website called DocBlumInc.
Blum markets a genetic test, the Genetic Addiction Risk Score, through his company IGENE LLC in partnership with Dominion Diagnostics, through LifeGen, Inc., where he is chairman of the board and chief scientific officer, and via Geneus Health for whom he also acts chief scientific officer and chairman. It is claimed that GARS assesses the genetic predisposition toward RDS.
Until 2008 he was chief scientific officer of Salugen Inc., another direct-to-consumer genetics testing company. After Blum's departure, Salugen continued under the leadership of Brian Meshkin, latterly CEO of Prove Biosciences, until its demise a year later. Blum is Scientific Director of the PATH foundation.

Publications

  • Blum, K., Gaskill, H., DeLallo, L., Briggs, A. H., & Hall, W.. Methionine enkephalin as a possible neuromodulator of regional cerebral blood flow. Experientia, 41, 932–933. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01970019
  • Blum, K., Febo, M., Fried, L., Li, M., Dushaj, K., Braverman, E. R., McLaughlin, T., Steinberg, B., & Badgaiyan, R. D.. Hypothesizing that neuropharmacological and neuroimaging studies of glutaminergic-dopaminergic optimization complex are associated with “Dopamine Homeostasis” in Reward Deficiency Syndrome. Substance Use & Misuse, 52, 535–547. doi: 10.1080/10826084.2016.1244551
  • Blum, K., Gondré-Lewis, M. C., Baron, D., Thanos, P. K., Braverman, E. R., Neary, J., Elman, I., & Badgaiyan, R. D.. Introducing precision addiction management of reward deficiency syndrome, the construct that underpins all addictive behaviors. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00548
  • Blum, K., Febo, M., Mclaughlin, T., Cronjé, F. J., Han, D., & Gold, M. S.. Hatching the behavioral addiction egg: Reward Deficiency Solution System ™ as a function of dopaminergic neurogenetics and brain functional connectivity linking all addictions under a common rubric. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 3, 149–156. https://doi.org/10.1556/jba.3.2014.019
  • Blum, K., Febo, M., Thanos, P. K., Baron, D., Fratantonio, J., & Gold, M.. Clinically combating reward deficiency syndrome with dopamine agonist therapy as a paradigm shift: Dopamine for dinner? Molecular Neurobiology, 52, 1862–1869.
  • Blum, K., Chen, A. L. C., Giordano, J., Borsten, J., Chen, T. J. H., Hauser, M., Simpatico, T., Femino, J., Braverman, E. R., & Barh, D.. The addictive brain: All roads lead to dopamine. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 44, 134–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2012.685407