Cannabinoid transmission
and reward-related events
by
Gardner EL, Vorel SR
Department of Psychiatry,
Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
New York, New York 10461-1602, USA.
gardner@aecom.yu.edu
Neurobiol Dis 1998 Dec; 5(6 Pt B):502-33

ABSTRACT

The reward/reinforcement circuitry of the mammalian brain consists of synaptically interconnected neurons associated with the medial forebrain bundle, linking the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, and ventral pallidum. Electrical stimulation of this circuit supports intense self-stimulation in animals and, in humans, produces intense pleasure or euphoria. This circuit is strongly implicated in the neural substrates of drug addiction and in such addiction-related phenomena as withdrawal dysphoria and craving. This circuit is also implicated in the pleasures produced by natural rewards (e.g., food, sex). Cannabinoids are euphorigenic in humans and have addictive liability in vulnerable persons, but were long considered "anomalous" drugs of abuse, lacking pharmacological interaction with these brain reward substrates. It is now clear, however, that cannabinoids activate these brain substrates and influence reward-related behaviors. From these actions, presumably, derive both the abuse potential of cannabinoids and the possible clinical efficacy in dysphoric states.

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Cannabis
Dopamine
Superskunk
Cannabinoids
Self-medication
The hungry hydra
Humans are not rats
Cannabis: pharmacology
Acute and residual effects
Cannabinoids/neurogenesis
Cannabinoids in vitro and in vivo
Nicotine and the cannabinoid system
Cannabis, heroin and the mu1 receptor

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