GABA-A receptors in accumbens neural circuits underlying drug abuse: novel targets for treatment?

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Drug addiction is a major social and health problem with causes that are both social and biological. The project represents the first stage of a programme of work whose aim is i) to develop methods in non-addicted volunteers for studying forms of addiction and its treatment (experimental medicine), ii) to understand particular biological processes that underlie addictive behaviour, and iii) to identify potential targets for pharmacological or behavioural intervention to combat forms of addictive behaviour. Some of our aims will be delivered within the lifetime of this proposal, while others will be realised in extensions of the work outlined here, and in parallel proposals under the umbrella of the MRC Addiction Research Cluster ?GABA?. In the present proposal we will study people who carry one particular genetic risk for addiction to discover how their behaviour is altered in ways that might increase the likelihood of developing addictions. At the same time, we will study the brain mechanisms involved in the action of this, and related genes, with the hope of finding ways in which the genetic predisposition can be overcome, either with drug-treatment or by changing their risky behaviour.