In her new book, What Would You Do Alone in a Cage with Nothing but Cocaine?, the philosopher Hanna Pickard proposes a new paradigm of addiction. Pickard explores the shortcomings of the brain disease ...

It has long been known as the arbiter of reward in the brain, but recent findings could upend this classic theory of dopamine ...

Addiction often isn’t about chasing pleasure—it’s about escaping pain. Researchers at Scripps Research have discovered that a tiny brain region called the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) ...

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 ...

Consider two adult siblings who grew up in the same household and same family atmosphere. One sibling can drink socially—he enjoys a beer now and then, but overall, he can take it or leave it—while ...