Addiction, Experimental Models and Neurobiological Mechanisms

Département de Pharmacologie Médicale, Centre d’Évaluation et d’Information sur la Pharmacoépendance, Faculté de Médecine, Lille, France

Correspondence and offprints: Régis Bordet, Département de Pharmacologie Médicale, Centre d’Évaluation et d’Informations sur la Pharmacodépendance, Faculté de Médecine, 1 place de Verdun, 59045 Lille cedex. E-mail: regis.bordet@chru-lille.fr

Received: 29 September 2014
Accepted: 30 September 2014

Abstract

Humans have constantly sought to alleviate their existential anxieties, first resorting to substances found in their natural environment, and more recently, with the arrival of modern chemistry, using synthetic substances or medications. The substances used in this way are constantly renewing, warranting health surveillance and particular vigilance towards the addictive risk, given its major medical and social impact. This surveillance and vigilance requires detailed, accurate knowledge of the pharmacological and physio-pathological models involved in the emergence of the process of addiction, in particular disturbances of the systems regulating dopaminergic transfer; it also requires knowledge of the means to identify individual risk factors linked to genetic or psycho-behavioural susceptibilities.