Addictive Basis of Marijuana and Cannabinoids
Year: 2002
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: The brain’s reward circuitry consists of synaptically interconnected neurons that link the ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens (Acb), ventral pallidum (VP), and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). Laboratory animals avidly self-administer mild electrical stimulation to these loci, and to the medial forebrain bundle (MFB), which interconnects the VTA, Acb, and MPFC. Mild electrical stimulation of this circuit produces an intense subjective experience of pleasure in humans. This circuit is strongly implicated in the neural substrates of drug abuse, and in such phenomena as withdrawal dysphoria and craving. Not surprisingly, natural rewards (e.g., food, sex) also activate these same brain substrates. Cannabinoids are euphorigenic in humans and have abuse liability, but were long considered to be devoid of pharmacological action on these brain-reward substrates. Work with cannabinoids over the last decade, however, make it clear that they activate these brain substrates and influence reward-related mechanisms in a manner strikingly similar to that of other drugs of abuse.
Source: Humana Press eBooks
Author: Eliot L. Gardner
Language: English
Subfield: Pharmacology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W33973120