Nora D. Volkow

TL;DR: Evidence of impaired function of regions involved with executive control, attention and vigilance in cocaine abusers is provided, likely to underlie the cognitive deficits during early cocaine abstinence and to reflect involvement of dopamine as well as other neurotransmitters.

TL;DR: PET studies designed to measure the responsiveness of striatal dopamine release to central cholinergic blockade were conducted in normal male volunteers using high-resolution PET and [11C]raclopride, a D2-dopamine receptor antagonist to support the use of PET for investigating the functional responsiveness of a specific neurotransmitter to a pharmacologic challenge.

TL;DR: It is suggested that cocaine intake is modulated in part by D2R levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), and strategies aimed at increasing D1R expression in NAc may be beneficial in treating cocaine abuse and addiction.

TL;DR: The NIH has developed an innovative, action-oriented research plan for HEAL that is focused on improving treatments for opioid misuse and addiction as well as enhancing strategies for pain management, and the initial components of this cross-cutting, interdisciplinary program are outlined.

TL;DR: Ethanol, lorazepam, and gamma‐vinyl GABA (GVG) significantly and dose‐dependently attenuated cocaine‐induced dopamine release in the corpus striatum of freely moving animals and offers the unique advantage of attenuating cocainne‐ induced dopamine release without the apparent side effects typically associated with sedative hypnotics.