Addiction Neuroscience 101

This module offers a 25-minute video of the neuroscience of addiction as a chronic brain disease presented by HMA’s Corey Waller, MD, MS, FACEP, DFASAM, with emphasis on Opioid Use Disorder (OUD).

“This lecture was developed for audiences of all backgrounds to absorb. From patients to nonspecialist docs. The intent was to move people past the preconceived notion that addiction is a moral failing or choice, to the reality that it is a chronic brain disease that creates maladaptive connections in large swaths of the brain. Over the hundreds of lectures, I have given in my career, I have come to realize that running through 30+ articles in a 70 slide PPT does not move people emotionally. But a good story will. The lecture has coalesced into a story form that is much more compelling than digging through the dense science of voxel dysmorphology, BOLD fMRI technology, and all of the structures postulated to drive craving. If I need a custody officer to “get it” or an administrator to understand the concept, I cannot give them the same lecture I would give a psychiatrist, addiction psychologist, addiction doc, or a neurologist.”

Read the Full Article Neuroscience of Addiction 101 Bibliography

Have a Question About This Resource?