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Neuroscience

Lack of inhibition leads to abuse

Nature volume 463, pages 743–744 (2010)Cite this article

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Chronic drug use can lead to addiction, which is initiated by specific brain circuits. The mystery of how one class of drugs, the benzodiazepines, affects activity in this circuitry has finally been solved.

Common illnesses such as anxiety disorders, insomnia and even muscle spasms are treated with benzodiazepine drugs, of which diazepam (Valium) is perhaps the best known. But both conventional benzodiazepines and newer benzodiazepine-like compounds (such as zolpidem) are addictive. This limits the therapeutic potential of an otherwise safe class of drugs that has broad clinical applications.

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Figure 1: Proposed mechanism of addiction of benzodiazepine drugs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Arthur C. Riegel and Peter W. Kalivas are in the Department of Neurosciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA. riegel@musc.edu,

    Arthur C. Riegel & Peter W. Kalivas

  2. kalivasp@musc.edu,

    Arthur C. Riegel & Peter W. Kalivas

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  1. Arthur C. Riegel
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  2. Peter W. Kalivas
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Riegel, A., Kalivas, P. Lack of inhibition leads to abuse. Nature 463, 743–744 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/463743a

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