The brain's reward systems reinforce behaviors required for species survival, including sex, food consumption, and social interaction. Drugs of abuse co-opt these neural pathways, which can lead to addiction. Here, we used Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the relationship between natural and drug rewards. In males, mating increased, whereas sexual deprivation reduced, neuropeptide F (NPF)...

Hypersexuality is now part of the DSM-V and has been defined as abnormally increased sexual activity. Epidemiological and clinical studies have shown that this non-paraphilic condition consists of "excessive" sexual behaviors and disorders accompanied by personal distress and social and medical morbidity. Hypersexual disorder is conceptualized as primarily a non-paraphilic sexual desire disorde...

Crystal methamphetamine is a potent amphetamine related to speed and ecstasy. It is used in a variety of contexts, social and sexual, and by various means including injection, smoking and swallowing. Its effect on dopamine release creates feelings of intense pleasure, invulnerability, and heightened self confidence. In the current context of increased HIV incidence in various states, some resea...

Reward processing is crucial to our health and wellbeing and dysfunctional brain reward signaling is a component of a number of psychiatric disorders, including major depression and drug addiction. Rewarding behaviors like eating, parenting, nursing, social play, and sexual activity are powerfully preserved in evolution and are essential for survival. All of them gratifying, they represent enjo...

BACKGROUND Violence against women is a social and public health issue in Mexico. The aim of this article is to explore violence among an understudied group of women, who attended Mutual-Aid Residential Centers for Addiction Treatment and experienced stigma both as women and addicts. These centers are particular kind of addiction treatment services that stem from 12-step philosophy, but that hav...

Addictive drugs can profoundly affect social behaviour both acutely and in the long-term. Effects range from the artificial sociability imbued by various intoxicating agents to the depressed and socially withdrawn state frequently observed in chronic drug users. Understanding such effects is of great potential significance in addiction neurobiology. In this review we focus on the 'social neurop...