I’ve generally felt critical of the “disease” label for addiction. But having read your many comments and looked up some recent literature, I can now give it its due. Psychiatrists – because they are ...

Addiction is one of the most intensely studied conditions in modern medicine, yet even with high‑resolution brain scans and genetic tools, scientists still cannot fully explain why some people get ...

One of the dominant ways of thinking about addiction is as a disease. While there is evidence for this approach, it often leads to a dismissal of addiction’s social causes, rooted in alienation and ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American Over the past year and a half, Scientific ...

"If addiction is a disease, is it fair to punish people for showing symptoms of it? That's the question raised by a case going before the Massachusetts Supreme Court next week, one that has national ...

The murder of Rob Reiner and his wife by their son late last year raised an agonizing question: How is it that loving parents with all the resources in the world cannot save a child (or themselves) ...

Every experience leaves a trace in the brain, a memory that can shape future behavior. Alcohol and other addictive substances ...

While most prior studies have focused on brain-centric models of reward, some work has shown that gut-vagal signals have an effect on food-driven dopamine activity and eating behaviors. Yet it was ...

A growing movement claims social media is “addictive,” and lawmakers are treating it as settled science. But the evidence is ...