Drug addiction is responsible for millions of deaths per year around the world. Still, its management as a chronic disease is shadowed by misconceptions from the general public. Indeed, drug consumers are often labelled as “weak”, “immoral” or “depraved”. Consequently, drug addiction is often perceived as an individual problem and not societal. In technical terms, drug addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing disease resulting from sustained effects of drugs on the brain. Through a better characterisation of the cerebral circuits involved, and the long-term modifications of the brain induced by addictive drugs administrations, first, we might be able to change the way the general public see the patient who is suffering from drug addiction, and second, we might be able to find new treatments to normalise the altered brain homeostasis. In this review, we synthetise the contribution of fundamental research to the understanding drug addiction and its contribution to potential novel therapeutics. Mostly based on drug-induced modifications of synaptic plasticity and epigenetic mechanisms (and their behavioural correlates) and after demonstration of their reversibility, we tried to highlight promising therapeutics. We also underline the specific temporal dynamics and psychosocial aspects of this complex psychiatric disease adding parameters to be considered in clinical trials and paving the way to test new therapeutic venues.

毒瘾每年导致全世界数百万人死亡。尽管如此，其作为一种慢性疾病的管理仍受到公众误解的影响。事实上，吸毒者常常被贴上“弱者”、“不道德”或“堕落”的标签。因此，吸毒成瘾常常被视为个人问题而不是社会问题。用技术术语来说，药物成瘾被定义为一种因药物对大脑持续影响而导致的慢性、复发性疾病。通过更好地描述所涉及的大脑回路，以及成瘾药物引起的大脑的长期改变，首先，我们也许能够改变公众看待毒瘾患者的方式，其次，我们也许能够找到新的治疗方法来使改变的大脑稳态正常化。在这篇综述中，我们综合了基础研究对理解药物成瘾的贡献及其对潜在新疗法的贡献。主要基于药物诱导的突触可塑性和表观遗传机制（及其行为相关性）的修饰，在证明其可逆性后，我们试图强调有前途的治疗方法。我们还强调了这种复杂精神疾病的具体时间动态和心理社会方面，增加了临床试验中需要考虑的参数，并为测试新的治疗场所铺平了道路。