Neurochemical Paradoxes in Modern Narcology

A. I. Golovko¹ and G. A. Sofronov

The Kirov Military Medical Academy, St. Petersburg, Russia

Received August 6, 2010

Abstract—This article reviews the role of neurochemical factors in the pathogenesis mechanisms of addictive
diseases with chemical etiologies. The data presented here suggest that the activation of dopaminergic systems
contributes to the development of the addiction pattern. The main neurochemical equivalent of this phenome-
non is increased dopamine release in different structures of the brain reward system. Further description of this
process is crucial for better understanding of the paradoxical results of neurophysiological, neuroanatomical,
and behavioral studies performed in the paradigm of psychoactive drugs administration. We show that some
inconsistency in the experimental data may be explained by different methods of narcotization (alcoholization)
of experimental animals. That is why not only the effects of a drug itself should be taken into consideration
while interpreting the results of neurochemical studies but also the influence of conditional, motivation, and
cognitive factors. The improvement of modern neurochemical and narcological studies will probably require
their standardization.

Keywords: dopamine exocytosis, narcotization methods, neurochemistry, narcology

DOI: 10.1134/S181971241101003X

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