Why someone becomes addicted to a substance has long baffled scientists and philosophers. Now leading researchers are getting the clearest picture yet of how addiction works in the brain and body.

You've probably heard about the controversy between the disease model of addiction and the choice model. Stanton Peele, a blogger here on the PT site, waxes eloquent on the topic. You may have even ...

It is frequently said that addiction occurs when drugs “hijack” the brain. It’s hard to nail down what that means, but it does rightly suggest that there is an involuntary takeover of the brain that ...

Some researchers argue that the roles of social environment and personal choice have to be considered in order to make progress in treating people addicted to drugs. By Jan Hoffman The message ...

Addiction expert Dr. Drew warns that trendy "Dry January" and "dopamine detox" resets may signal deeper addiction issues.

About 27 million American adults, roughly the population of Texas, struggled with alcohol use disorder last year, according to the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. If you or someone you ...

For decades, Americans have been told a simple story about addiction: taking drugs damages the brain—and the earlier in life children start using substances, the more likely they are to progress ...

Some lessons we learn the hard way, as individuals and as a society. Early in her career, Dr. Anna Lembke says she made some mistakes treating patients because she “didn’t know anything about ...

Research in mice has shown that fentanyl addiction is the result of two brain circuits working in tandem, rather than a single neural pathway as had been previously thought. One circuit underlies the ...

For weeks, Steele, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, and members of his lab have traveled to an addiction treatment center in Middletown, Connecticut, where they are ...

Scientists have found that the process of adaptive myelination, which helps the brain learn new skills, can also promote addiction to opioids. Our brains, even in adulthood, continually adapt to what ...

An extensive study involving about 500 college students examined food cravings and reward responses. The foods that ranked ...