Cue-induced drug craving progressively increases after prolonged withdrawal from drug self-administration in laboratory animals, a behavioral phenomenon termed 'incubation of drug craving.' Studies over the years have revealed several important neural mechanisms contributing to incubation of drug craving. In this mini-review, we first discuss three excellent Addiction Biology publications on incubation of drug craving in both human and laboratory animals. We then review several key publications from the past year on behavioral and mechanistic findings related to incubation of drug craving.
Keywords: Addiction; cocaine; dopamine; glutamate; incubation; relapse.
Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.