Opioids, dopamine, stress, and the addictions

The articulated goals of Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience are to serve as “an interface between clinical neuropsychiatry and the neurosciences by providing state-of-the-art information and original insights into relevant clinical, biological, and therapeutic aspects.” My laboratory, the Laboratory of the Biology of Addictive Diseases at The Rockefeller University, has for years been focused on “bi-directional translational research,” that is, learning by careful observations and study in patient populations with the disorders under study, in this case primarily specific addictive diseases, and then using that knowledge to create improved animal models or other laboratory-based research paradigms, while, at the same time, taking research findings made at the bench into the clinic as promptly as that is appropriate and feasible. In this invited review, therefore, the focus will be on perspectives of our Laboratory of the Biology of Addictive Diseases and related National institutes of Health/National institute on Drug Abuse research Center, including laboratory-based molecular neurobiological research, research using several animal models designed to mimic human patterns of drug abuse and addiction, as well as basic clinical research, intertwined with treatment-related research.