ArticleiScience2021
An opponent process for alcohol addiction based on changes in endocrine gland mass.
Article in iScience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sense of agency and addiction.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Unifying regulatory motifs in endocrine circuits.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Oversized cells activate global proteasome-mediated protein degradation to maintain cell size homeostasis.eLife · 2025Article
- Exercise, addiction and motivation: the development of a motivation scale in extreme sports as a sport of challenge with nature.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Longitudinal hair cortisol in bipolar disorder and a mechanism based on HPA dynamics.iScience · 2024Article
- Structure-function relationship of the pituitary gland in anorexia nervosa and intense physical activity.Brain structure & function · 2024Article
- Cross-talk between the HPA axis and addiction-related regions in stressful situations.Heliyon · 2023Review
- Article
- Dynamics of thyroid diseases and thyroid-axis gland masses.Molecular systems biology · 2022Article
- A Mechanism for Ovulation Number Control.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Consuming addictive drugs is often initially pleasurable, but escalating drug intake eventually recruits physiological anti-reward systems called opponent processes that cause tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. Opponent processes are fundamental for the addiction process, but their physiological basis is not fully characterized. Here, we propose an opponent processes mechanism centered on the endocrine stress response, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. We focus on alcohol addiction, where the HPA axis is activated and secretes β-endorphin, causing euphoria and analgesia. Using a mathematical model, we show that slow changes in the functional mass of HPA glands act as an opponent process for β-endorphin secretion. The model explains hormone dynamics in alcohol addiction and experiments on alcohol preference in rodents. The opponent process is based on fold-change detection (FCD) where β-endorphin responses are relative rather than absolute; FCD confers vulnerability to addiction but has adaptive roles for learning. Our model suggests gland mass changes as potential targets for intervention in addiction.
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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.