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 …

A major hypothesis in the addiction field suggests deficits in dopamine signaling during
abstinence as a driving mechanism for the relapsing course of the disorder. Paradoxically …

Background Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a major cause of premature death, disability and
suffering. Available treatments are of modest efficacy and under-prescribed so there is a …

Brain circuits that include the cortex and basal ganglia make up the bulk of the forebrain,
and influence behaviors related to almost all aspects of affective, cognitive and sensorimotor …

This paper is the thirty-sixth consecutive installment of the annual review of research
concerning the endogenous opioid system. It summarizes papers published during 2013 …

Background: Stress-related obesity might be related to the suppression of the hypothalamic-
pituitary-adrenocortical axis and dysregulation of the metabolic system. Chronic stress also …

Background Low-dose naltrexone (LDN) is used widely as an off-label treatment for pain
despite limited evidence for its effectiveness. A few small trials with a high risk of bias have …

Alcohol use disorder has multiple characteristics including excessive ethanol consumption,
impaired control over drinking behaviors, craving and withdrawal symptoms, compulsive …

Mu opioid receptors (MORs) are widely distributed throughout brain reward circuits and their
role in drug and social reward is well established. Substantial evidence has implicated MOR …

Nicotine and alcohol addiction are leading causes of preventable death worldwide and
continue to constitute a huge socio‐economic burden. Both nicotine and alcohol perturb the …