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Structural changes associated with addiction can be inhibited by NMDA receptor antagonists which block the activity of NMDA receptors. [47] NMDA receptors are essential in the process of LTP and LTD. [32] Drugs of this class are unlikely candidates for pharmacological prevention of addiction because these drugs themselves are used recreationally.
Compounds of this sort are being explored as therapeutics for a variety of brain disorders including depression, addiction, and PTSD. The ability to rapidly promote neuronal changes via mechanisms of neuroplasticity was recently discovered as the common therapeutic activity and mechanism of action. [3]
The mesolimbic pathway and a specific set of the pathway's output neurons (e.g. D1-type medium spiny neurons within the nucleus accumbens) play a central role in the neurobiology of addiction. [20] [21] [22] Drug addiction is an illness caused by habitual substance use that induces chemical changes in the brain's circuitry. [23]
How the brain changes. Brain plasticity science is the study of a physical process. Gray matter can actually shrink or thicken; neural connections can be forged and refined or weakened and severed.
The majority of addiction to nicotine starts during youth and young adulthood. [79] Adolescents are more likely to become nicotine dependent than adults. [80] The adolescent brain seems to be particularly sensitive to neuroplasticity as a result of nicotine. [44]
ΔFosB is the most significant biomolecular mechanism in addiction because the overexpression of ΔFosB in the D1-type medium spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens is necessary and sufficient for many of the neural adaptations and behavioral effects (e.g., expression-dependent increases in drug self-administration and reward sensitization ...
Neuroplasticity can also occur as a consequence of targeted epigenetic modifications such as methylation and acetylation. Exposure to certain recurring stimuli leads to demethylation of particular loci and remethylation in a pattern that leads to a response to that particular stimulus. Like the histone readers, erasers and writers also modify ...
Doctors recommend tapering off the medication only with the greatest of caution. The process can take years given that addiction is a chronic disease and effective therapy can be a long, grueling affair. Doctors and researchers often compare addiction from a medical perspective to diabetes.