This article may help explain addiction science through research on alcohol, nicotine, brain science, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “People affected by psychotic, depressive and developmental disorders are at a higher risk for alcohol and tobacco use.”
Key finding: Further understanding of these relationships may assist clinicians in the development of future approaches to improve symptoms and cognition among psychotic, depressive and developmental disorders.
Translational Psychiatry • 07 Aug 2024 • Research
alcoholnicotinebrain sciencemental health
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, alcohol, cannabis, nicotine. The source abstract begins by describing: “Despite the benefits associated with longer buprenorphine treatment duration (i.e., >180 days) (BTD) for opioid use disorder (OUD), retention remains poor.”
Key finding: Longer BTD is associated with diagnoses of psychiatric and somatic conditions in the EHR, as is the genetic score for OUD, loneliness, problematic alcohol use, and externalizing disorders.
Translational Psychiatry • 10 Jan 2024 • Research
opioidalcoholcannabisnicotinegeneticsmental health
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, cocaine, brain science, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “In humans, early-life adversity (ELA) such as trauma, poverty, and chaotic environment is linked to increased risk of later-life emotional disorders including depression and substance abuse.”
Key finding: Our findings, taken together with our prior work, suggest that men and women could face qualitatively different mental health consequences of ELA, which may be essential for individually tailoring future intervention strategies.
Translational Psychiatry • 16 Jun 2022 • Research
opioidcocainebrain sciencemental healthtreatmentanimal study
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on cannabis, nicotine, mental health, treatment. The source abstract begins by describing: “Cannabis, a widely used psychoactive substance, can trigger acute cannabis-associated psychotic symptoms (CAPS) in people who use cannabis (PWUC).”
Key finding: In light of the movements towards legalization of recreational cannabis, more research should focus on the potential harms related to cannabis use, to educate PWUC and the public about risks related to its use.
Translational Psychiatry • 06 Sept 2022 • Research
cannabisnicotinemental healthtreatment
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on relapse, genetics, mental health, treatment. The source abstract begins by describing: “Substance use disorder (SUD) is a global health problem with a significant impact on individuals and society.”
Key finding: Collectively, these data contribute to a better understanding of the role of genetic liability for mental health-related conditions and adverse life experiences in SUD heterogeneity.
Translational Psychiatry • 29 May 2024 • Research
relapsegeneticsmental healthtreatment
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on alcohol, nicotine, genetics, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “Observational studies suggest that physical activity can reduce the risk of mental health and substance use disorders.”
Key finding: Enhancing PA may be an effective intervention strategy to reduce depressive symptoms and addictive behaviours, while promoting sedentary or light physical activities may help to reduce the risk of anorexia in at-risk individuals.
Molecular Psychiatry • 21 Jul 2023 • Research
alcoholnicotinegeneticsmental healthtreatment
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on cocaine, dopamine, genetics, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “Post-traumatic stress disorder and cocaine use disorder are highly co-morbid psychiatric conditions.”
Key finding: Together, our studies demonstrate that susceptibility to traumatic stress is associated with a cocaine use-vulnerable phenotype and suggests that differences in phasic dopamine signaling architecture may contribute to the process by which this vulnerability occurs.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 20 Sept 2019 • Research
cocainedopaminegeneticsmental healthanimal study
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on nicotine, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “The odds-ratio of smoking is elevated in populations with neuropsychiatric diseases, in particular in the highly prevalent diagnoses of post-traumatic stress and anxiety disorders.”
Key finding: We propose that smokers have a deficit in integrating contextual signs of safety, which is a hallmark of post-traumatic stress and anxiety disorders.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 25 Jan 2017 • Research
nicotinemental health
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on alcohol, cannabis, nicotine, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “Cannabis is used widely as a recreational drug, and its legalization is an ongoing issue in several countries.”
Key finding: Here, we review the current state of knowledge about such vulnerability factors, the variations in types of cannabis, and the relationship between these and cognition and addiction.
Nature Reviews Neuroscience • 07 Apr 2016 • Reviews
alcoholcannabisnicotinemental healthreview
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on cannabis, brain science, genetics, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “There have been dramatic changes worldwide in the attitudes toward and consumption of recreational and medical cannabis.”
Key finding: Here Ferland and Hurd discuss risk factors related to the development of CUD its neurobiological characteristics.
Nature Neuroscience • 06 Apr 2020 • Reviews
cannabisbrain sciencegeneticsmental healthtreatmentreview
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on dopamine, brain science, craving, genetics. The source abstract begins by describing: “Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been recognized as a serious mental illness and is often accompanied by depression (IGD-D).”
Key finding: These phenomena were supported by the correlation between FC and behavioral as well as biochemical measures, suggesting that MM is a promising therapy for IGD-D.
Translational Psychiatry • 18 Feb 2026 • Research
dopaminebrain sciencecravinggeneticsmental healthtreatment
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, genetics, mental health, treatment. The source abstract begins by describing: “Gambling disorder is characterized by a persistent, recurrent pattern of gambling that is associated with substantial distress or impairment.”
Key finding: This Primer describes the epidemiology, neurobiology, diagnosis, screening, prevention and treatment of this behavioural disorder, and discusses the quality of life of individuals affected.
Nature Reviews Disease Primers • 25 Jul 2019 • Reviews
opioidgeneticsmental healthtreatmentreview
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on alcohol, withdrawal, relapse, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “Adolescent alcohol exposure increases the risk of developing alcohol use disorders (AUDs), yet the mechanisms responsible for this vulnerability remain largely unknown.”
Key finding: These studies demonstrate long-lasting, sex-dependent phenotypes produced by AIE and suggest pharmaceutical interventions for alcohol use and comorbid disorders may be more effective if designed with sex differences in mind.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 08 Apr 2020 • Research
alcoholwithdrawalrelapsemental healthtreatment
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on alcohol, brain science, genetics, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “The authors demonstrate that the anti-stress peptide neuropeptide Y reduces binge drinking in monkeys and mice by inhibiting neurons in the amygdala that contain the stress peptide corticotropin-releasing factor.”
Key finding: Together, these data provide both a cellular locus and signaling framework for the development of new therapeutics for treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases, including alcohol use disorders.
Nature Neuroscience • 09 Mar 2015 • Research
alcoholbrain sciencegeneticsmental healthtreatmentanimal study
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on dopamine, brain science, genetics, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “The monoamine neurotransmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) exerts an inhibitory influence over motivation, but the circuits mediating this are unknown.”
Key finding: These studies support an oppositional interaction between 5-HT and DA systems in controlling motivation and goal-directed behavior, and have important implications for the development and refinement of treatment strategies for psychiatric disorders such as depression and addiction.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 12 Nov 2018 • Research
dopaminebrain sciencegeneticsmental healthtreatment
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on mental health, treatment, review. The source abstract begins by describing: “Trauma-focused treatments — psychotherapies that focus on trauma as a central component of treatment and use cognitive, emotional or behavioural techniques to facilitate the processing of a traumatic experience — are first-line interventions for…”
Key finding: In this Review, Kline and colleagues discuss effective treatments for this combination, focusing on trauma-focused treatments, and provide recommendations to improve treatment response and reduce dropout.
Nature Reviews Psychology • 14 Nov 2022 • Reviews
mental healthtreatmentreview
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on brain science, genetics, mental health, review. The source abstract begins by describing: “Optogenetics enables the precise and targeted manipulation of the activity of specific neurons and is a powerful tool for the dissection of neural circuits.”
Key finding: The rapid proliferation of optogenetic reagents together with the swift advancement of strategies for implementation has created new opportunities for causal and precise dissection of the circuits underlying brain diseases in animal models.
Nature Reviews Neuroscience • 20 Mar 2012 • Reviews
brain sciencegeneticsmental healthreview
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, cocaine, dopamine, brain science. The source abstract begins by describing: “Deficits in decoding rewarding (and aversive) signals are present in several neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression and addiction, emphasising the importance of studying the underlying neural circuits in detail.”
Key finding: Our findings demonstrate that D1- and D2-MSNs can bidirectionally control reward and aversion, explaining the existence of controversial studies in the field, and highlights that the proposed striatal functional opposition needs to be reconsidered.
Molecular Psychiatry • 28 Aug 2019 • Research
opioidcocainedopaminebrain sciencegeneticsmental health
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on cocaine, dopamine, withdrawal, relapse. The source abstract begins by describing: “Dopaminergic systems are implicated in stress-related behaviour.”
Key finding: study mice deficient in dopamine D2 receptors, and find an increase in anxiety behaviour and reduced addictive behaviour in response to stress, both of which are associated with changes in nucleus accumbens activity.
Nature Communications • 12 Mar 2013 • Research
cocainedopaminewithdrawalrelapsemental healthanimal study
Read plain-English summary Open source
This article may help explain addiction science through research on alcohol, cannabis, genetics, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “Liability to alcohol dependence (AD) is heritable, but little is known about its complex polygenic architecture or its genetic relationship with other disorders.”
Key finding: Dependence only partly genetically correlates with consumption, with strong correlations to other psychiatric disorders.
Nature Neuroscience • 26 Nov 2018 • Research
alcoholcannabisgeneticsmental health
Read plain-English summary Open source