RELIEVES BOREDOM –
Mar. 4, 2026 – People who stop using don’t experience the same physical withdrawal symptoms that opiates cause, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to quit. The drug hijacks the brain, flooding the reward centers with dopamine. This positive reinforcement tricks the brain into feeling like it’s doing something good instead of destructive.
Even if someone successfully quits, the odds aren’t in their favor. About 24% relapse to weekly use, and another 18% return to a treatment program within a year.
Andrew Eagle, a former postdoctoral researcher in Robison’s lab and the paper’s lead author, found a key player responsible for the compulsion — a protein called DeltaFosB. He used a specialized form of CRISPR technology to examine the role this protein plays in specific brain circuits when mice were exposed to cocaine.
