Scientific Council Member Nora D. Volkow, M.D. and Colleagues Redefine Addiction as a Brain Disorder

Scientific Council Member Nora D. Volkow, M.D. and Colleagues Redefine Addiction as a Brain Disorder

Posted: August 22, 2011

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Addiction has been newly defined as a chronic brain disorder, as opposed to simply a behavioral problem. Studies over the past 20 years have shown  how addiction takes over different parts of the brain, to explain what prompts those behaviors and why they can be so hard to overcome.

The brain's reward system can change as a chemical named dopamine conditions it to rituals and routines that are linked to getting something that is found pleasurable.

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