There is a high degree of overlap between brain regions involved in processing natural
rewards and drugs of abuse.“Non-drug” or “behavioral” addictions have become …

Negative affect is a core symptom domain associated with an array of neurological and
psychiatric disorders and is only partially targeted by current therapies, highlighting the need …

Excitatory signaling mediated by NMDARs has been shown to regulate mood disorders.
However, current treatments targeting NMDAR subtypes have shown limited success in …

Stress contributes to numerous psychiatric disorders. Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF)
signaling and CRF neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) drive negative …

Stress is a precipitating agent in neuropsychiatric disease and initiates relapse to drug-
seeking behavior in addicted patients. Targeting the stress system in protracted abstinence …

Selective inhibition of kappa opioid receptors (KORs) is highly anticipated as a
pharmacotherapeutic intervention for substance use disorders and depression. The …

Glutamate, the major excitatory neurotransmitter, functions in the brain via activation of
ligand-gated cation channels and also the eight subtypes of class CG protein-coupled …

The dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) plays a dual role in modulating drug seeking
and fear-related behaviors. Learned associations between cues and drug seeking are …

Pharmacological and genetic studies have suggested that the metabotropic glutamate
receptor 5 (mGluR5) is critically involved in mediating the reinforcing effects of drugs of …

Sensation seeking is a multifaceted, heritable trait which predicts the development of
substance use and abuse in humans; similar phenomena have been observed in rodents …