Addiction is commonly identified with habitual nonmedical self-administration of drugs. It is
usually defined by characteristics of intoxication or by characteristics of withdrawal …

Behaviours such as eating, copulating, defending oneself or taking addictive drugs begin
with a motivation to initiate the behaviour. Both this motivational drive and the behaviours …

Mental health disorders, particularly depression and anxiety, affect a significant number of
the global population. Several pathophysiological pathways for these disorders have been …

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

The physiological stress response is responsible for the maintenance of homeostasis in the
presence of real or perceived challenges. In this function, the brain activates adaptive …

In human addicts, drug relapse and craving are often provoked by stress. Since 1995, this
clinical scenario has been studied using a rat model of stress-induced reinstatement of drug …

What is the defining property of addiction? We dust off a several-decades-long debate about
the relative importance of two forms of reinforcement—positive reinforcement, subjectively …

Stress is a well‐known risk factor in the development of addiction and in addiction relapse
vulnerability. A series of population‐based and epidemiological studies have identified …

The ventral pallidum (VP) plays a critical role in the processing and execution of motivated
behaviors. Yet this brain region is often overlooked in published discussions of the …

High rates of relapse to drug use during abstinence is a defining feature of drug addiction. In
abstinent drug users, drug relapse is often precipitated by acute exposure to the self …