The field of psychiatry is hampered by a lack of robust, reliable and valid biomarkers that can
aid in objectively diagnosing patients and providing individualized treatment …

Compulsion is a cardinal symptom of drug addiction (severe substance use disorder).
However, compulsion is observed in only a small proportion of individuals who repeatedly …

Addiction is a disease in which, after a period of recreational use, a subset of individuals
develops compulsive use that does not stop even in light of major negative consequences …

Addiction treatment has not been appreciably improved by neuroscientific research. One
problem is that mechanistic studies using rodent models do not incorporate volitional social …

Vulnerability to relapse during periods of attempted abstinence from cocaine use is
hypothesized to result from the rewiring of brain reward circuitries, particularly ventral …

The ventral tegmental area dopamine (VTA-DA) mesolimbic circuit processes emotional,
motivational, and social reward associations together with their more demanding cognitive …

Abstract “Food addiction” has become a focus of interest for researchers attempting to
explain certain processes and/or behaviors that may contribute to the development of …

Although both males and females become addicted to cocaine, females transition to
addiction faster and experience greater difficulties remaining abstinent. We demonstrate an …

Although it is challenging for individuals with cocaine addiction to achieve abstinence, the
greatest difficulty is avoiding relapse to drug taking, which is often triggered by cues …

The reinforcing and rewarding properties of cocaine are attributed to its ability to increase
dopaminergic transmission in nucleus accumbens (NAc). This action reinforces drug taking …