title: The biological, social and clinical bases of drug addiction: commentary and debate.
abstract: This article summarizes the main discussions at a meeting on the biological, social and clinical bases of drug addiction focused on contemporary topics in drug dependence. Four main domains are surveyed, reflecting the structure of the meeting: psychological and pharmacological factors; neurobiological substrates; risk factors (including a consideration of vulnerability from an environmental and genetic perspective); and clinical treatment. Among the topics discussed were tolerance, sensitization, withdrawal, craving and relapse; mechanisms of reinforcing actions of drugs at the behavioural, cognitive and neural levels; the role of subjective factors in drug dependence; approaches to the behavioural and molecular genetics of drug dependence; the use of functional neuroimaging; pharmaceutical and psychosocial strategies for treatment; epidemiological and sociological aspects of drug dependence. The survey takes into account the considerable disagreements and controversies arising from the discussions, but also reaches a degree of consensus in certain areas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Altman
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Everitt
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Glautier
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Markou
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nutt
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oretti
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Robbins
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004361:Drug Tolerance; D000431:Ethanol; D006801:Humans; D009294:Narcotics; D009538:Nicotine; D012307:Risk Factors; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000188:drug therapy; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D009294:Narcotics; D000431:Ethanol; D009538:Nicotine