The pervasive and devastating nature of substance use disorders underlies the need for the continued development of novel pharmacotherapies. We now know that glia play a much greater role in neuronal processes than once believed. The various types of glial cells (e.g., astrocytes, microglial, oligodendrocytes) participate in numerous functions that are crucial to healthy central nervous system function. Drugs of abuse have been shown to interact with glia in ways that directly contribute to the pharmacodynamic effects responsible for their abuse potential. Through their effect upon glia, drugs of abuse also alter brain function resulting in behavioral changes associated with substance use disorders. Therefore, drug-induced changes in glia and inflammation within the central nervous system (neuroinflammation) have been investigated to treat various aspects of drug abuse and dependence. This article presents a brief overview of the effects of each of the major classes of addictive drugs on glia. Next, the paper reviews the pre-clinical and clinical studies assessing the effects that glial modulators have on abuse-related behavioral effects, such as pleasure, withdrawal, and motivation. There is a strong body of pre-clinical literature demonstrating the general effectiveness of several glia-modulating drugs in models of reward and relapse. Clinical studies have also yielded promising results, though not as robust. There is still much to disentangle regarding the integration between addictive drugs and glial cells. Improved understanding of the relationship between glia and the pathophysiology of drug abuse should allow for more precise exploration in the development and testing of glial-directed treatments for substance use disorders.

物质使用障碍的普遍性和破坏性是持续开发新型药物疗法的必要性基础。我们现在知道神经胶质在神经元过程中发挥的作用比以前认为的要大得多。各种类型的神经胶质细胞（例如星形胶质细胞、小胶质细胞、少突胶质细胞）参与对健康中枢神经系统功能至关重要的多种功能。滥用药物已被证明与神经胶质相互作用，直接导致其滥用潜力的药效学效应。通过对神经胶质的影响，滥用药物也会改变大脑功能，导致与物质使用障碍相关的行为改变。所以，已经研究了药物引起的神经胶质变化和中枢神经系统内的炎症（神经炎症）以治疗药物滥用和依赖的各个方面。本文简要概述了各类主要成瘾药物对神经胶质细胞的影响。接下来，该论文回顾了临床前和临床研究，这些研究评估了神经胶质调节剂对与滥用相关的行为影响（如愉悦、退缩和动机）的影响。有大量临床前文献证明了几种神经胶质调节药物在奖赏和复发模型中的一般有效性。临床研究也产生了有希望的结果，尽管没有那么有力。关于成瘾性药物和神经胶质细胞之间的整合，仍有很多需要解决的问题。