Remarkable scientific progress over the past five decades has helped us develop knowledge of how drugs of abuse induce pleasure, reinforce use, and lead to the compulsive self-administration we call ...

A researcher at UB's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) has found a change in the brain that occurs after drug use and that may contribute to drug addiction. The finding, reported in the January ...

Dopamine—a neurotransmitter responsible for influencing motivation, pleasure, mood and learning in the brain—has experienced ...

Does using alcohol, nicotine, or cannabis engender addiction by changing the structure of brains, or does the structure of brains incline some people toward using those substances? In standard brain ...

Consider someone addicted to alcohol, drugs, or a behavior like gambling. Why do they continue, even when they say they want to stop? It's a question that highlights a fundamental disconnect: the gap ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. “This study is extremely helpful because it begins to outline the brain changes that are seen in teenagers who start to use drugs ...

Methamphetamine doesn't just spike levels of the pleasure-inducing hormone dopamine in the reward pathways of the brain—it also provokes damaging brain inflammation through similar mechanisms.

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 ...

Matt Field receives research funding from the Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, Alcohol Change UK, and the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling. He is a trustee of ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Meth, also known as ice, is as addictive as it is damaging. FlashMovie/iStock via Getty Images Plus Methamphetamine doesn’t just ...