Addiction articles within Nature

Featured

  • Review Article |

    A review into the complex effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol on the dopamine system, examining data from animal and human studies and discussing the necessary future direction of research.

    • Michael A. P. Bloomfield
    • , Abhishekh H. Ashok
    •  & Oliver D. Howes

  • Outlook |

    Research into addiction explores many aspects of how and why this disease develops. Here are four of the toughest questions.

    • David Holmes

  • Outlook |

    To treat addiction, people need help to develop psychosocial skills in addition to taking medication, says Kenneth E. Leonard.

    • Kenneth E. Leonard

  • Outlook |

    Ingenious pill formulations and the latest manufacturing technologies are helping to stem the tide of painkiller addiction.

    • Elie Dolgin

  • Outlook |

    Addiction researchers are optimistic that they can create effective medication to treat addictions. But the key question is, will pharmaceutical companies bring them to market?

    • Cassandra Willyard

  • Outlook |

    Giving a gift or a cash incentive to someone to give up an addiction sounds like a prize for behaving badly, but the practice works. The real challenge is deciding who should pay for it.

    • Sujata Gupta

  • Letter |

    A study of compulsive drug-seeking behaviour in rats reveals that prolonged cocaine self-administration decreases prelimbic cortex activity resulting in increased compulsive drug-seeking actions; conversely, increasing activity in the prelimbic cortex decreases drug-seeking behaviour, a finding relevant to addiction treatment.

    • Billy T. Chen
    • , Hau-Jie Yau
    •  & Antonello Bonci

  • News & Views |

    Cocaine use causes lasting changes in behaviour by altering the strength of connections between neurons. The finding that these changes can be reversed in mice suggests strategies that could be used to treat drug addiction. See Letter p.71

    • Marina E. Wolf

  • Books & Arts |

    George Rousseau learns about the impact of cocaine on physicians Sigmund Freud and William Halsted.

    • George Rousseau

  • Editorial |

    Caffeinated alcoholic drinks, popular with students, are now being targeted by US regulators. But if government is serious about addressing alcohol abuse, it must confront more powerful foes.

  • Article |

    Extended cocaine taking triggers several structural and functional changes in the brain that may lead to compulsive drug seeking, but the mechanisms that regulate the process are unclear. Here, a microRNA — miR-212 — is identified that is upregulated in the striatum of rats with a history of extended access to cocaine. The authors suggest that miR-212 protects against the development of compulsive drug taking, and that it may act through the CREB protein, a known regulator of the rewarding effects of cocaine.

    • Jonathan A. Hollander
    • , Heh-In Im
    •  & Paul J. Kenny

  • News & Views |

    Cocaine abuse results in increased craving for the drug. But in the long run, cocaine intake induces the expression of a microRNA in the brain, and this seems to limit further drug intake.

    • Marina R. Picciotto

  • Opinion |

    After five years, the World Health Organization's tobacco-control treaty is starting to have an effect, but we need to tackle the smoking epidemic in the developing world, say Jonathan M. Samet and Heather L. Wipfli.

    • Jonathan M. Samet
    •  & Heather L. Wipfli

  • Article |

    Benzodiazepines, such as valium, are used both in clinics and for recreational purposes, but lead to addiction in some individuals. Addictive drugs increase the levels of dopamine and trigger synaptic adaptations in the mesolimbic reward system, but the neural basis for the addictive nature of benzodiazepines remains elusive. Here, they are shown to increase firing of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area through GABAA receptor activation in nearby interneurons.

    • Kelly R. Tan
    • , Matthew Brown
    •  & Christian Lüscher

  • News & Views |

    Chronic drug use can lead to addiction, which is initiated by specific brain circuits. The mystery of how one class of drugs, the benzodiazepines, affects activity in this circuitry has finally been solved.

    • Arthur C. Riegel
    •  & Peter W. Kalivas

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