THE BIOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND CLINICAL BASES OF DRUG-ADDICTION - COMMENTARY AND DEBATE

This article summarizes the main discussions at a meeting on the biolo gical, social and clinical bases of drug addiction focused on contempo rary topics in drug dependence. Four main domains are surveyed, reflec ting the structure of the meeting: psychological and pharmacological f actors; neurobiological substrates; risk factors (including a consider ation of vulnerability from an environmental and genetic perspective); and clinical treatment. Among the topics discussed were tolerance, se nsitization, withdrawal, craving and relapse; mechanisms of reinforcin g actions of drugs at the behavioural, cognitive and neural levels; th e role of subjective factors in drug dependence; approaches to the beh avioural and molecular genetics of drug dependence; the use of functio nal neuroimaging; pharmaceutical and psychosocial strategies for treat ment; epidemiological and sociological aspects of drug dependence. The survey takes into account the considerable disagreements and controve rsies arising from the discussions, but also reaches a degree of conse nsus in certain areas.