Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a chronic relapsing disorder that, whilst initially driven by
activation of brain reward neurocircuits, increasingly engages anti-reward neurocircuits that …

Opioids are powerful drugs that usurp and overpower the reward function of endogenous
opioids and engage dramatic tolerance and withdrawal via molecular and neurocircuitry …

Compulsive drug seeking that is associated with addiction is hypothesized to follow a
heuristic framework that involves three stages (binge/intoxication, withdrawal/negative affect …

Opioids produce strong analgesia but their use is limited by a paradoxical hypersensitivity
named opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH) that may be associated to analgesic tolerance. In …

Treating pain is one of the most difficult challenges in medicine and a key facet of disease
management. The isolation of morphine by Friedrich Sertürner in 1804 added an essential …

Agonists targeting the kappa opioid receptor (KOR) have been promising therapeutic
candidates because of their efficacy for treating intractable itch and relieving pain. Unlike …

Migraine headache results from activation of meningeal nociceptors, however, the
hypothalamus is activated many hours before the emergence of pain. How hypothalamic …

Two major questions about addictive behaviors need to be explained by any worthwhile
neurobiological theory. First, why do people seek drugs in the first place? Second, why do …

Pain is a multidimensional experience and negative affect, or how much the pain is
“bothersome”, significantly impacts the sufferers' quality of life. It is well established that the κ …

Post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a diagnosis that may follow the experience of trauma,
has multiple symptomatic phenotypes. Generally, individuals with PTSD display symptoms …