Pharmacotherapy of Alcohol and Drug Dependence

Advances in neurobiology have increased our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of drug and alcohol dependence and led to the development of medications to treat addictive disorders (Koob GF, Volkow ND. Neurocircuitry of addiction. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2010;35(1):217-38). Addictive disorders are increasingly recognized as medical conditions, influenced by genetic, biological and psychosocial factors, for which the optimal treatment combines both pharmacological and psychosocial therapies (McLellan AT, Lewis DC, O'Brien CP, Kleber HD. Drug dependence, a chronic medical illness: implications for treatment, insurance, and outcomes evaluation. JAMA. 2000;284(13):1689-95). This review discusses the neurobiology and physiology of addiction, the putative mechanisms of action of pharmacotherapies in the treatment of addictive disorders and the evidence for their efficacy. © 2014, Springer International Publishing AG.