Clinical Neuroscience of Addiction: What Clinical Psychologists Need to Know and Why

Abstract

The last three decades in psychological research have been marked by interdisciplinary science. Addiction represents a prime example of a disorder marked by a complex interaction among psychosocial and biological factors. This review highlights critical findings in the basic neuroscience of addiction and translates them into clinical language that can inform clinical psychologists in their research, teaching, and practice. From mechanisms of reward processing, learning and memory, allostasis, incentive-sensitization, withdrawal, tolerance, goal-directed decision making, habit learning, genetics, inflammation, and the microbiome, the common theme of this review is to illustrate the clinical utility of basic neuroscience research and to identify opportunities for clinical science. The thoughtful integration of basic and clinical science provides a powerful tool to fulfill the scientific mission of improving health care. Clinical psychologists have a crucial role to play in the translational science of addiction.

Keywords: addiction; allostasis; clinical neuroscience; incentive-sensitization; neuroadaptation; translational science.