MANY EXPENSIVE AND DISturbing social problems can be traced directly to drug dependence. Recent studies estimated that drug dependence costs the United States approximately $67 billion annually in crime, lost work productivity, foster care, and other social problems. These expensive effects of drugs on all social systems have been important in shaping the public view that drug dependence is pri...

OBJECTIVE Not everyone who takes drugs becomes addicted, but the likelihood of developing drug addiction is greater in people with a family history of drug or alcohol dependence. Relatively little is known about how genetic risk mediates the development of drug dependence. By comparing the phenotypic profile of individuals with and without a family history of addiction, the authors sought to cl...

  Tolerance and dependence are two main problems that have limited morphine administration as an analgesic drug and they might be as a result of changes in the number and affinity of receptors, dysfunction of adenylate cyclase, impaired coupling between activated µ receptor and K+ channels, and changes in the K+ and Ca2+ channels. There are several reports concerning the role of some of these...

Research on assessing craving in laboratory settings often involves inducing and then measuring craving in subjects. Cue-induced craving is studied in laboratory settings using the cue reactivity paradigm, in which drug-related photos, videos, evocative scripts, olfactory cues, and paraphernalia may induce craving. Cue-induced craving evoked by drug-related stimuli could be associated with rela...

The relation between illicit drug dependence and the likelihood of drug overdose is unclear. We recruited 1,066 habitual drug users for this analysis through street-based outreach in New York City. In this sample, 99.3% of respondents used heroin in the past year and 87.1% of respondents used cocaine; 819 (77.5%) heroin users and 735 (79.2%) cocaine users were severely dependent on either drug ...

Drug dependence is defined as a chronically relapsing disorder that is characterized by compulsive drug taking, inability to limit intake, and intense drug cravings. The positive reinforcing/rewarding effects of drugs primarily depend on the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system innervating the nucleus accumbens while the craving for drugs is associated with activation of the prefrontal cortex. The...