title: Understanding the disease of addiction.
abstract: Addiction is a chronic brain disease. Drug addiction manifests as a compulsive obsession to use a substance despite serious detrimental and sometimes irreversible consequences. Drug addiction is not the same as drug dependency because dependency may not manifest as an addictive behavior. This problem is fundamental to understanding the disease of addiction. This article discusses the neurobiology and genetics of drug addiction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, 295 Calhoun Street, Charleston, SC 29425, USA. Electronic address: detardt@musc.edu.
authors.forename: D Todd
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Detar
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease; D051786:Cyclic AMP Response Element Modulator; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D009446:Neurobiology; D012074:Remission Induction; D012307:Risk Factors; D012701:Serotonin / Q000378:metabolism; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D051786:Cyclic AMP Response Element Modulator; D012701:Serotonin; D004298:Dopamine