Robert Thomas's List: BSC Research Week 2

• The truth is that we will make progress in dealing with drug issues only when our national discourse and our strategies are as complex and comprehensive as the problem itself.
• drug addiction is a brain disease that develops over time as a result of the initially voluntary behavior of using drugs.
• The consequence is virtually uncontrollable compulsive drug craving, seeking, and use that interferes with, if not destroys, an individual's functioning in the family and in society.
• long-lasting brain changes are responsible for the distortions of cognitive and emotional functioning that characterize addicts, particularly including the compulsion to use drugs
• It is as if drugs have highjacked the brain's natural motivational control circuits, resulting in drug use becoming the sole, or at least the top, motivational priority for the individual.
• a brain disease: a condition caused by persistent changes in brain structure and function.
• much too simplistic to set biology in opposition to behavior or to pit willpower against brain chemistry. Addiction involves inseparable biological and behavioral components. It is the quintessential biobehavioral disorder.
• Many people also erroneously still believe that drug addiction is simply a failure of will or of strength of character.
• Addiction begins with the voluntary behavior of using drugs,
• having this brain disease does not absolve the addict of responsibility for his or her behavior, but it does explain why an addict cannot simply stop using drugs by sheer force of will alone.
• What really matters most is whether or not a drug causes what we now know to be the essence of addiction: uncontrollable, compulsive drug craving, seeking, and use, even in the face of negative health and social consequences.
• Compulsive craving that overwhelms all other motivations is the root cause of the massive health and social problems associated with drug addiction
• Addiction is a brain disease expressed in the form of compulsive behavior. Both developing and recovering from it depend on biology, behavior, and social context.

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