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Neurobiological Adaptations to Drug Use

NCJ Number
169433
Author(s)
D W Self
Date Published
1997
Length
5 pages
Annotation
After discussing the biological factors involved in drug addiction craving and relapse, this paper discusses the identification of the "switch" in the brain that turns a person into a drug addict.
Abstract
A growing literature suggests that three events -- stress, low doses of drugs of abuse, and drug-associated stimuli (or conditional cues) -- cause relapse of drug-seeking behavior in animal models. In each case, relapse of drug-seeking has been associated with an increase in dopamine released in the NAc. The primary anatomical pathways by which these stimuli can access the mesolimbic dopamine system are as follows: stress acts through the prefrontal cortex, drug-associated stimuli act through the amygdala, and both have excitatory projections to the VTA by using the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. The priming effects of these stimuli in animal models of relapse all can be blocked by drugs that block dopamine receptors. In the treatment of cocaine addiction most of the compounds that have been tried and failed have activity of both the D1 and the D2 receptors or primarily just of the D2 receptors. No compounds with selected activity of D1 receptors have been used as a pharmacotherapy for cocaine addiction. Based on the animal studies of the author and his colleagues, they propose that if compounds with selective activity at the D1 receptors were used, they would constitute a methadone-like compound in cocaine addiction. 4 figures and 1 table

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