CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Drug addiction is an historic and active participant in the sociological landscape of most cultures. Depending on the culture and the drug, use of addictive drugs ranges from religious to socially acceptable to criminalized. Regardless of the cultural or personal perspectives on drug use, by definition the pharmacological actions of addictive drugs elicit enduring pathological changes in brain function. The pathological adaptations render the addict less responsive to interpersonal and social relationships, and subject to an intrusive drive to seek and use drugs that successfully competes with engaging in biologically adaptive behaviours. Thus, there are two cardinal behavioural characteristics of addiction: 1) reduced responding to biological rewards such as social cooperation, and 2) inability to regulate the drive to seek drug reward. From a socio-biological perspective, addiction is caused by drug-induced changes in brain function that cause the drive to obtain and use drugs to supersede the drive to obtain biological rewards. Accordingly, a primary goal for treating addiction is to restore brain function and thereby allow addicts to regulate and suppress drug use (O?Brien, 2005). There are requisite pharmacological characteristics that a drug must possess in order to induce the underlying neuroplasticity that results in addiction liability. However, there are also strong environmental and genetic influences that can promote or inhibit the behavioural consequences of drug use. In this chapter, we will focus primarily on the pharmacological basis of addiction as this is driven by shared neurological events regardless of different sociological or genetic vulnerabilities. However, we will also discuss the most prominent sociological and genetic vulnerabilities that appear to make certain individuals and populations more or less susceptible to the pharmacological and neuroadaptive influences of addictive drugs.