Development of pharmacotherapies for drug addiction: a Rosetta stone approach.

ABSTRACT: Current pharmacotherapies for addiction represent opportunities for facilitating treatment and are forming a foundation for evaluating new medications. Furthermore, validated animal models of addiction and a surge in understanding of neurocircuitry and neuropharmacological mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of addiction - such as the neuroadaptive changes that account for the transition to dependence and the vulnerability to relapse - have provided numerous potential therapeutic targets. Here, we emphasize a 'Rosetta Stone approach', whereby existing pharmacotherapies for addiction are used to validate and improve animal and human laboratory models to identify viable new treatment candidates. This approach will promote translational research and provide a heuristic fram

SUBMITTER: Koob GF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2760328 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature