Abstract
A MECHANISM was recently proposed (personal communication from M. H. Seevers and ref. 1) whereby psychic dependence could arise because a drug tipped towards reward the balance of the linked reward and punishment systems, which Olds2 has postulated to co-exist in the brain. The blockade by drug of a neurohumoral transmitter substance inhibiting the reward or exciting the punishment system could provide one mechanism by which the balance might be tipped1. Such a blockade might be expected in turn to induce a Supersensitivity of pharmacological denervation giving rise to psychic tolerance (expressed as a tendency to increase the dose) and, on cessation of treatment, to psychic withdrawal effects (experienced as a mental state opposite to that induced by the drug). The possible role in psychic dependence on cocaine of another type of Supersensitivity towards transmitter is worth discussing.
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COLLIER, H. Supersensitivity and Dependence on Cocaine. Nature 220, 1327–1328 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/2201327a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2201327a0
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