In 1997, Alan Leshner, then director of the National Institute for Drug Abuse, wrote an article entitled “Addiction Is a Brain Disease and It Matters.” That eight-word title became the perfect sound ...

Is addiction a choice or a disease? A psychiatrist explains how repeated substance use changes brain reward and ...

Substance use disorder is a treatable, chronic condition in which an individual has an addiction to using alcohol, tobacco, ...

Addiction is one of the most intensely studied conditions in modern medicine, yet even with high‑resolution brain scans and ...

One of the dominant ways of thinking about addiction is as a disease. While there is evidence for this approach, it often ...

We need a new paradigm for addiction that puts psychology first and recognizes its heterogeneity. Only then will we see that ...

Addiction often isn’t about chasing pleasure—it’s about escaping pain. Researchers at Scripps Research have discovered that a tiny brain region called the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) ...

Addiction is an umbrella term that reflects qualities of substance use disorder, characterized by an inability to stop using a substance despite harmful consequences. However, addiction is not a ...

Mount Sinai researchers have found that a brain region that is implicated extensively in value-based decision-making and craving in people with heroin use disorder – known as the orbitofrontal cortex ...