Benzodiazepines
This inhibitory neurotransmitter system is enhanced by benzodiazepines to produce their calming effects.
What is GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)?
This pair of neurotransmitters is elevated by psychostimulants, such as cocaine and amphetamine, producing both the euphoria of a "high" and the sharpened focus users report.
What is dopamine and norepinephrine?
Opioids primarily activate this receptor type to produce euphoria and pain relief.
What is the mu (μ) opioid receptor?
Unlike other drug classes, psychedelics have low addiction potential because they don't activate this reward pathway.
What is the dopamine system?
Despite developing readily with benzodiazepines, these two addiction components remain paradoxically weak.
What are reinforcement and craving?
When repeated drug use causes the brain to reduce or internalize dopamine receptors, users experience less pleasure from both drugs and natural rewards - a process known as this.
What is tolerance?
This dangerous combination of tolerance and physical dependence specifically increases this fatal risk in opioid users.
What is overdose?
This serotonin receptor rapidly downregulates after psychedelic use, causing immediate tolerance.
What is the 5-HT2A receptor?
These two phenomena that occur after stopping benzodiazepines significantly influence long-term use patterns.
What are withdrawal and rebound?
This receptor change explains why stimulant users experience diminishing subjective reward over time.
What is dopamine receptor (D2) downregulation?
This becomes the primary motivation for continued opioid use once euphoria fades.
What is withdrawal avoidance?
Psychedelics' rapid tolerance but low addiction potential reveals addiction requires this beyond just receptor changes.
What is reinforcement (or reward activation)?
This type of receptor adaptation explains why benzodiazepine tolerance develops readily despite weak reinforcement.
What is GABA receptor downregulation?
Unlike opioids, stimulant dependence is primarily this type rather than physical.
What is psychological dependence?
Tolerance to this opioid effect develops slower than to euphoria, creating a dangerous window.
What is respiratory depression?
Psychedelics don't cause this type of dependence, explaining why users don't experience withdrawal.
What is physical dependence?
This neurobiological imbalance best explains why benzodiazepine dependence occurs without strong reward-seeking behavior.
What is allostatic dysregulation of inhibitory control systems?
Psychostimulants act on this dopamine pathway, running from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens, which encodes reward, motivation, and learning.
What is the mesolimbic dopamine pathway?
This stress-response system becomes dysregulated in opioid addiction, increasing relapse vulnerability.
What is the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis?
The preservation of this prefrontal function in psychedelic users contrasts with its impairment in other addictions.
What is inhibitory control?