The conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm is a well-established model utilized to
study the role of context associations in reward-related behaviors, including both natural …

Addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder characterized by the loss of control over drug
intake, high motivation to obtain the drug, and a persistent craving for the drug …

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

Understanding the brain circuitry that underlies reward is critical to improve treatment for
many common health issues, including obesity, depression, and addiction. Here we focus …

Objective The goal of this meta-analysis was to examine whether long-term physical
exercise could be a potential effective treatment for substance use disorders (SUD) …

Early life stress–including experience of child maltreatment, neglect, separation from or loss
of a parent, and other forms of adversity–increases lifetime risk of mood, anxiety, and …

Neurotrophic factors, particularly brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and other
members of the neurotrophin family, are central mediators of the activity-dependent plasticity …

Typical therapies try to reverse pathogenic mechanisms. Here, we describe treatment effects
achieved by enhancing depression-causing mechanisms in ventral tegmental area (VTA) …

Despite the importance of numerous psychosocial factors, at its core, drug addiction involves
a biological process: the ability of repeated exposure to a drug of abuse to induce changes …

Treating pain is one of the most difficult challenges in medicine and a key facet of disease
management. The isolation of morphine by Friedrich Sertürner in 1804 added an essential …