by DANIEL LENDE
The National Institute on Drug Abuse has revised one of its foundational publications – Drugs, Brain and Behavior: The Science of Addiction. The online guidebook, also available as a pdf, provides a comprehensive guide to what NIDA does – improve the scientific understanding of addiction and promote better evidence-based prevention, treatment, and policy.
How do drugs work in the brain to produce pleasure?
Most drugs of abuse directly or indirectly target the brain’s reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, cognition, motivation, and feelings of pleasure. The overstimulation of this system, which rewards our natural behaviors, produces the euphoric effects sought by people who abuse drugs and teaches them to repeat the behavior.
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