Courtesy National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Health
Study Sheds Light on how to Reset the Addicted Brain
Research suggests that targeted stimulation of the brain’s prefrontal cortex is a promising treatment for addiction.
Could drug addiction treatment of the future be as simple as an on/off switch in the brain? A study in rats has found that stimulating a key part of the brain reduces compulsive cocaine-seeking and suggests the possibility of changing addictive behavior generally. The study, published in Nature, was conducted by scientists at the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California, San Francisco.