Drugs of abuse and the brain
by
Leshner AI, Koob GF
National Institute on Drug Abuse,
National Institutes of Health,
Rockville, MD, USA.
Proc Assoc Am Physicians 1999 Mar-Apr; 111(2):99-108


ABSTRACT

New insights into our understanding of drug abuse and addiction have revealed that the desire to use drugs and the process of addiction depend on effects on brain function. Drugs of abuse have been hypothesized to produce their rewarding effects by neuropharmacological actions on a common brain reward circuit called the extended amygdala. The extended amygdala involves the mesolimbic dopamine system and specific subregions of the basal forebrain, such as the shell of the nucleus accumbens, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and the central nucleus of the amygdala. The psychomotor stimulants cocaine and amphetamine activate the mesolimbic dopamine system; opiates activate opioid peptide receptors within and independent of the mesolimbic dopamine system. Sedative hypnotics alter multiple neurotransmitter systems in this circuitry, including: 1) gamma aminobutyric acid; 2) dopamine; 3) serotonin; 4) glutamate; and 5) opioid peptides. Nicotine and tetrahydrocannabinol both activate mesolimbic dopamine function and possibly opioid peptide systems in this circuitry. Repeated and prolonged drug abuse leads to compulsive use, and the mechanism for this transition involves, at the behavioral level, a progressive dysregulation of brain reward circuitry and a recruitment of brain stress systems such as corticotropin-releasing factor. The molecular mechanisms of signal transduction in these systems are a likely target for residual changes in that they convey allostatic changes in reward set point, which lead to vulnerability to relapse.


AJ 76
Reward
Cocaine
Dopamine
Supercoke
GBR12909
Venlafaxine
Cocaethylene
Cocaine hotspots
Cocaine is for bugs
Transient tolerance
Cocaine and depression
Cocaine, food and water
Freebasing flies go hyperkinetic
A disease of the reward centers?
Cocaine highs and the olfactory tubercle

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24




More
HedWeb
HerbWeb
BLTC Research
Wirehead Hedonism
Paradise-Engineering
Utopian Pharmacology
The Hedonistic Imperative
More Research On Coked-Up Flies
When Is It Best To Take Crack Cocaine?

swan image
The Good Drug Guide
The Responsible Parent's Guide
To Healthy Mood Boosters For All The Family