Sex in the Nucleus Accumbens: ΔFosB, Addiction, and Affective States

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are neuropsychiatric diseases with complex etiologies that include genetic/individual predispositions to drug responses that are influenced by distinct environmental stressors (1). Because humans meet the criteria for SUDs only after repeated exposure to drugs, it has been suggested that these drugs may cause long-term neuroplastic changes secondary to epigenetic alterations and associated changes in gene expression. Therefore, recent efforts to dissect molecular responses to drugs have included discovery approaches using large-scale RNA sequencing to investigate the impact of drugs on gene expression in various brain regions.
Source: Biological Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research