Drug addiction: a curable mental disorder?

Drug addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disorder. Multiple neural networks in the brain including the reward system (e.g., the mesocorticolimbic system), the anti-reward/stress system (e.g., the extended amygdala), and the central immune system, are involved in the development of drug addiction...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta pharmacologica Sinica 2018-12, Vol.39 (12), p.1823-1829
Main Authors: Liu, Jian-feng, Li, Jun-xu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amygdala
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Brain
Dopamine
Drug abuse
Drug addiction
Drug development
Immune system
Immunology
Immunosuppressive agents
Internal Medicine
Medical Microbiology
Mental disorders
Neural networks
Pharmacology/Toxicology
Reinforcement
Review
Review Article
Vaccine
Withdrawal
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Summary:Drug addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disorder. Multiple neural networks in the brain including the reward system (e.g., the mesocorticolimbic system), the anti-reward/stress system (e.g., the extended amygdala), and the central immune system, are involved in the development of drug addiction and relapse after withdrawal from drugs of abuse. Preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that it is promising to control drug addiction by pharmacologically targeting the addiction-related systems in the brain. Here we review the pharmacological targets within the dopamine system, glutamate system, trace amine system, anti-reward system, and central immune system, which are of clinical interests. Furthermore, we discuss other potential therapies, e.g., brain stimulation, behavioral treatments, and therapeutic gene modulation, which could be effective to treat drug addiction. We conclude that, although drug addiction is a complex disorder that involves complicated neural mechanisms and psychological processes, this mental disorder is treatable and may be curable by therapies such as gene modulation in the future.
ISSN:1671-4083
1745-7254
DOI:10.1038/s41401-018-0180-x