Dr. Lembke: Dopamine Deficits Drive Addiction Cravings More Than Highs
Dr. Anna Lembke · Dr. Anna Lembke: Between Pleasure and Pain · Feb 21, 2023 · at 5:50
Dr. Anna Lembke, Stanford professor of psychiatry and addiction medicine, explains how chemical deficit states sustain compulsive behavioral cycles in addiction.
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“The other thing is that that's very important here is that once people start to become addicted, what's salient is not so much the release of dopamine when they're getting high or experiencing pleasure, but it's actually the decrease in dopamine in between or the dopamine deficit state that leaves them in a constant state of craving that then motivates them to want to do the work.”
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