Actions of drugs of abuse on brain reward systems: a reconsideration with specific attention to alcohol

Abstract

Research in the areas of intracranial self-stimulation and drug self-administration has provided a substantial data base that has contributed to our understanding of brain reward mechanisms. In a recent article, Wise [83] argued that dopamine is the catecholamine critically involved in the central mediation of reward. The present paper attempts to examine the available data with particular reference to alcohol, but also with reference to opiates, and argues that the reinforcing effects of at least these drugs are primarily and directly mediated by noradrenergic rather than dopaminergic systems in the brain. It also argues, in direct contrast to Wise, that in the context of these drugs, dopamine seems to play a minor if not negligible role.