Drug addiction poses a global public health challenge, with limited therapeutic options and modest efficacy. While clinical observations suggest that social rank plays a crucial role in determining ...

Remarkable scientific progress over the past five decades has helped us develop knowledge of how drugs of abuse induce pleasure, reinforce use, and lead to the compulsive self-administration we call ...

A new study published in the journal Science Signaling has found that an immune system protein plays a central role in the addictive mechanisms of methamphetamine. The findings suggest that tumor ...

Dopamine—a neurotransmitter responsible for influencing motivation, pleasure, mood and learning in the brain—has experienced a bit of fame in recent years, acting as a sort of buzzword to describe a ...

Are cookies and chips the new cigarettes? And soda, breakfast cereals and ice cream the new opioids? In his new book, “Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine: The New Science of Achieving a Healthy Weight” ...

(CNN) — Maybe you’d like to spend time on hobbies or hang out with friends, but nothing feels as exciting and engaging as it used to –– so you just squander another hour on social media. Your problem ...

A class of drugs commonly used to treat movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease and restless leg syndrome is pushing people into risky sexual behavior. Patients taking dopamine agonists say the ...

Some experts believe many psychological problems stem from excessive outside intrusions rather than inner conflicts. Anna Lembke, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, contends that many ...

Social rank regulates methamphetamine-seeking behavior by modulating the mesocortical and mesolimbic dopamine pathways, and winning experiences can remodel these circuits to suppress drug-seeking. In ...