ReviewPharmacological reviews2016
The Nucleus Accumbens: Mechanisms of Addiction across Drug Classes Reflect the Importance of Glutamate Homeostasis.
Review in Pharmacological reviews, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 354 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
354 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review and meta-analysis on the transcriptomic signatures in alcohol use disorder.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Exercise as a Neurobiological Intervention: Utilizing NAc Circuitry to Combat Addiction.Addiction neuroscience · 2026Article
- Dissociation of decision-making from escalated drug intake within a long-access model.Behavioural brain research · 2026Article
- The neuroimmune-glutamate hypothesis of addiction.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026Review
- Genetic Basis of Tobacco Use Disorder.Genes · 2026Review
- Nicotine self-administration suppresses both pro- and anti-inflammatory accumbens cytokines but does not induce apoptosis in female rats.Addiction neuroscience · 2026Article
- Ethanol Self-Administration Reduces mGlu2/3 Protein Expression in the Nucleus Accumbens and mGlu2/3 Activation Suppresses Binge Drinking in Male Mice.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- Article
- Sexually dimorphic organization of extracellular matrix and perineuronal nets in the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) social brain.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Utility of the Recombinase Driver CX3CR1-ERT2 Rat Strain in Nicotine Self-Administration.Cells · 2026Article
- Cannabidiol Attenuates Heroin Seeking in Male Rats Associated With Normalization of Discrete Neurobiological Signatures Within the Nucleus Accumbens With Subregional Specificity.Biological psychiatry · 2026Article
- The Anatomical Connections of Nucleus Accumbens with Brainstem and Cerebellum in the Rat and Human Subjects.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2026Article
- Volitional cocaine taking engages distinct medium spiny neuron and astrocyte transcriptional programs in the rat nucleus accumbens.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Genome-wide association study of cocaine self-administration behavior in Heterogeneous Stock rats.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Review
- Opposing Ageing-Related Transcriptomic Profiles Distinguish Opioid Exposure Liability From Dependence Liability.Cureus · 2026Article
- Early life adversity, oxytocin system alterations, and addiction vulnerability: a narrative review.Psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Morphological and anatomical variations in subcortical anatomy between humans and chimpanzees associated with heritability patterns related to human behavioral traits.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Theta oscillations vary with local response rate and are moderated by the dopamine-depleting agent, tetrabenazine, during effort-based behavior.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
294 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The nucleus accumbens is a major input structure of the basal ganglia and integrates information from cortical and limbic structures to mediate goal-directed behaviors. Chronic exposure to several classes of drugs of abuse disrupts plasticity in this region, allowing drug-associated cues to engender a pathologic motivation for drug seeking. A number of alterations in glutamatergic transmission occur within the nucleus accumbens after withdrawal from chronic drug exposure. These drug-induced neuroadaptations serve as the molecular basis for relapse vulnerability. In this review, we focus on the role that glutamate signal transduction in the nucleus accumbens plays in addiction-related behaviors. First, we explore the nucleus accumbens, including the cell types and neuronal populations present as well as afferent and efferent connections. Next we discuss rodent models of addiction and assess the viability of these models for testing candidate pharmacotherapies for the prevention of relapse. Then we provide a review of the literature describing how synaptic plasticity in the accumbens is altered after exposure to drugs of abuse and withdrawal and also how pharmacological manipulation of glutamate systems in the accumbens can inhibit drug seeking in the laboratory setting. Finally, we examine results from clinical trials in which pharmacotherapies designed to manipulate glutamate systems have been effective in treating relapse in human patients. Further elucidation of how drugs of abuse alter glutamatergic plasticity within the accumbens will be necessary for the development of new therapeutics for the treatment of addiction across all classes of addictive substances.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.