addiction
6 stories tagged "addiction"
In Abstinent Mice, a Deep Brain Region More Than Doubles Its Activity Before Relapse
In mice, a deep brain region more than doubled its activity after they quit drinking, before they touched a drop again. Relapse-like drinking may be a brain adaptation, not a failure of will.
Brain & AgingThe Craving Brake Nobody Mapped: How GLP-1 Drugs Quiet Cravings From the Lateral Septum
The anti-craving effect pushing people to use a diabetes shot off-label against drinking traces to a brain region built to inhibit, not to reward, and the human evidence is still just two small trials deep.
Metabolic & WeightOrforglipron Reaches Deep Into the Brain's Reward Circuit and Turns the Dopamine Down
In mice engineered with human GLP-1 receptors, the new oral pills reached the central amygdala, a deep reward hub, and thinned the dopamine payoff of eating for pleasure. The government's addiction institute is already watching.
Drugs & FDAA DoD-Funded Fentanyl Vaccine Is Headed to Phase 1. Antibodies Don't Stop a Supply Chain.
A Pentagon-funded fentanyl vaccine licensed to startup ARMR Sciences will begin Phase 1 in the Netherlands in early 2026. Three decades of failed addiction vaccines, and a supply chain that runs through Chinese precursor labs, are the context the press release leaves out.
Brain & AgingDisappointment, Not Reward, Is What Breaks a Habit. Half of Older Adults Are on Drugs That Blunt Acetylcholine.
An OIST team caught the mouse brain firing acetylcholine the moment an expected reward failed to land. That surge is what lets the animal switch strategy. Close to half of community-dwelling older adults are on drugs that block the same receptors.
Metabolic & WeightA gut hormone keeps showing up in the brain's reward circuit, and 600,000 veterans just gave us the biggest hint yet that it matters
A VA cohort of 606,000 diabetic veterans on GLP-1 drugs showed lower risks of new substance use disorders and large drops in overdose and drug-related death versus a peer diabetes drug. The mechanism story is where it gets interesting.