Although many drug-induced neural changes are known, progress has been slow in
identifying the ones that actually mediate addiction. Identifying changes that are specific to …

Background Pre‐clinical research involving non‐human animals has made important
contributions to our understanding of risk factors for addiction, neuroadaptations that follow …

Compulsive drug intake is a hallmark of addiction, yet a mechanistic understanding of this
process has been elusive. Drug use is initiated primarily to obtain the excitatory actions of …

We hypothesize that drug addiction can be viewed as the endpoint of a series of transitions
from initial voluntary drug use through the loss of control over this behaviour, such that it …

The choice between smoking, injecting or swallowing a drug influences the risk of addiction,
as this determines both how much drug gets into the brain and how fast. Most animal studies …

A compulsion to take a drug combined with a loss of control in limiting intake is the defining
feature of substance dependence or addiction, and is the conceptual framework for the …

Laboratory animals self-administer most, though not all, drugs of abuse. Recent evidence
shows that with increased drug availability, most laboratory rats develop all the major …

Addiction is a disease characterized by compulsive drug seeking and consumption
observed in 20–30% of users. An addicted individual will favor drug reward over natural …

Addiction biology has focused on the mechanisms of the positive and negative reinforcing
actions of addictive drugs but neglected potential benefits. Two new studies provide the first …

It is increasingly recognized that studying drug taking in laboratory animals does not equate
to studying genuine addiction, characterized by loss of control over drug use. This has …