Drugs of abuse are able to elicit compulsive drug-seeking behaviors upon repeated administration, which ultimately leads to the phenomenon of addiction. Evidence indicates that the susceptibility to develop addiction is influenced by sources of reinforcement, variable neuroadaptive mechanisms, and neurochemical changes that together lead to altered homeostasis of the brain reward system. Addict...

Relapse rates following current methamphetamine abuse treatments are very high (∼40-60%), and the neuropsychiatric impairments (e.g., cognitive deficits, mood disorders) that arise and persist during remission from methamphetamine addiction likely contribute to these high relapse rates. Pharmacotherapeutic development of medications to treat addiction has focused on neurotransmitter systems wit...

BACKGROUND General practitioners are referring patients with codeine-related problems to specialist treatment facilities, but little is known about the addiction treatment providers, the kinds of treatment they provide, and whether training or other interventions are needed to strengthen this sector. OBJECTIVES To investigate the perspectives of addiction treatment providers regarding treatme...

A growing body of evidence shows that gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) is an addictive substance. Its precursors gammabutyrolactone (GBL) and 1,4-butanediol (1,4-BD) show the same properties and may pose even more risks due to different pharmacokinetics. There are indications that problematic GHB use is increasing in the European Union. This review investigates the existing literature on the neu...

Drug craving and relapse to drug use during abstinence are defining features of addiction. Evidence indicates that drug craving and relapse in humans are often provoked by acute exposure to the self-administered drug, drug-associated cues, or stress. During the last two decades, this clinical scenario has been primarily studied at the preclinical level using the classical reinstatement model. H...

anger has always been among main obstacles in substance abuse treatment for both the patients and therapists. this is whilst numerous studies and clinical experiences affirm that if expression methods of anger and other positive or negative feelings remains the same, patient would still struggle with lapse and relapse and consequently, more drop outs would be seen in treatment settings. therefo...

Drug addiction is a chronic brain disorder characterized by withdrawal symptoms that occur during drug abstinence and a high tendency of relapse. Compared with the currently available pharmacological interventions, acupuncture therapy has the potential to help drug addicts stay away from drugs without major adverse side effects. It has taken decades of research to optimize the parameters of ele...

Acute stress is associated with relapse in cocaine addiction, possibly through the activation of craving-related neural circuitry. Neural responses to cocaine cues and acute stress were investigated in an fMRI study. Ten male participants mentally re-enacted personalized scripts about cocaine use and a neutral experience both with and without a stressor present (anticipation of electrical shock...

Relapse is a major characteristic of drug addiction disorders and remains the primary problem for treatment. Recently, there has been hope that these disorders may be amenable to pharmacological treatments that have successfully treated other psychopathological disorders. Pharmacological approaches to drug abuse have tended to be guided by the primary drug used by the individual, though substit...