Neurochemical paradoxes in modern narcology

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 phenomenon 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.