The neurobiology of addiction
- 1 January 2003
- book chapter
- review article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC
- No. 66,p. 1-14
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0541-2_1
Abstract
Drug addiction includes complex neurobiological and behavioural processes. Acute reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse are responsible for the initiation of drug addiction, whereas the negative consequences of drug abstinence have a crucial motivational significance for relapse and maintenance of the addictive process. The mesocorticolimbic system represents a common neuronal substrate for the reinforcing properties of drugs of abuse. Both dopamine and opioid transmission play a crucial role in this reward pathway. Common neuronal changes have also been reported during the abstinence to different drugs of abuse that could underlie the negative motivational effects of withdrawal. These changes include decreased dopaminergic activity in the mesolimbic system and a recruitment of the brain stress pathways. All drugs of abuse interact with these brain circuits by acting on different molecular and neurochemical mechanisms. The existence of bidirectional interactions between different drugs of abuse, such as opioids and cannabinoids, provides further findings to support this common neurobiological substrate for drug addictive processes.Keywords
This publication has 85 references indexed in Scilit:
- Effects of Moderate Alcohol Consumption on the Central Nervous System*Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, 1998
- Cannabinoids activate mesolimbic dopamine neurons by an action on cannabinoid CB1 receptorsEuropean Journal of Pharmacology, 1998
- Mesolimbic dopaminergic reduction outlasts ethanol withdrawal syndrome: Evidence of protracted abstinenceNeuroscience, 1996
- Deficient long-term memory in mice with a targeted mutation of the cAMP-responsive element-binding proteinCell, 1994
- Profound decrement of mesolimbic dopaminergic neuronal activity during ethanol withdrawal syndrome in rats: electrophysiological and biochemical evidence.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1993
- The mesolimbic dopaminergic system is implicated in the reinforcing effects of nicotinePsychopharmacology, 1992
- Depression of Mesolimbic Dopamine Transmission and Sensitization to Morphine During Opiate AbstinenceJournal of Neurochemistry, 1992
- Strain-specific facilitation of dopamine efflux by Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol in the nucleus accumbens of rat: An in vivo microdialysis studyNeuroscience Letters, 1991
- Profound depression of mesolimbic dopamine release after morphine withdrawal in dependent ratsEuropean Journal of Pharmacology, 1991
- New perspectives in basal forebrain organization of special relevance for neuropsychiatric disorders: The striatopallidal, amygdaloid, and corticopetal components of substantia innominataNeuroscience, 1988