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Abstract
The development of addiction involves a transition from casual to compulsive patterns
of drug use. This transition to addiction is accompanied by many drug-induced changes
in the brain and associated changes in psychological functions. In this article we
present a critical analysis of the major theoretical explanations of how drug-induced
alterations in psychological function might cause a transition to addiction. These
include: (a) the traditional hedonic view that drug pleasure and subsequent unpleasant
withdrawal symptoms are the chief causes of addiction; (b) the view that addiction
is due to aberrant learning, especially the development of strong stimulus-response
habits; (c) our incentive-sensitization view, which suggests that sensitization of
a neural system that attributes incentive salience causes compulsive motivation or
"wanting" to take addictive drugs; and (d) the idea that dysfunction of frontal cortical
systems, which normally regulate decision making and inhibitory control over behavior,
leads to impaired judgment and impulsivity in addicts.