advances in understanding the neurobiology of addiction to stimulants, has made it possible for researchers to identify medicines effective in initiation of treatment and prevention of stimulants relapse, based on pharmacological effects of various medicine. some of these medicine and vaccines have brought promising results in clinical trials on cocaine dependent patients. studies regarding met...

he prevalence of recreational crystal methamphetamine use and related emergency room admissions are on the rise across the United States,1,2 accompanied by a curious media sometimes quick to sensationalize the trend, other times to isolate its impact on specific social groups (eg, gay and bisexual men, circuit party attendees).3,4 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), amphetamines a...

BACKGROUND During withdrawal, patients experience different symptoms. These symptoms are associated with relapse. Understanding different outcomes of methamphetamine abstinence is useful for finding better treatments for dependence. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to show the effects of abstinence on depression, anxiety, and quality of life in methamphetamine users. PATIENTS AND METHODS A prosp...

BACKGROUND Dopamine D2/D3 receptor availability in the striatum has been linked with executive function in healthy individuals, and is below control levels among drug addicts, possibly contributing to diminished executive function in the latter group. This study tested for an association of striatal D2/D3 receptor availability with a measure of executive function among research participants who...

AIMS To characterize the natural history of methamphetamine withdrawal during the first 3 weeks of abstinence. DESIGN Cross-sectional study with comparison group. Setting A substance use treatment facility in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. PARTICIPANTS The sample comprised 21 in-patients undergoing treatment for methamphetamine dependence. Nine age- and sex-matched non-dependent individuals...

Leading theories of drug addiction propose that repeated drug exposure produces a long-lasting homeostatic dysregulation in brain reward processing that is normalized by drug readministration. In this issue of Neuron, Bamford and colleagues describe a novel neurobiological substrate that may contribute to this effect.