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Medicinal Plants and Addiction Treatment

An Overview

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Handbook of Substance Misuse and Addictions

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Abstract

Addiction is a major health problem that imposes huge burdens all over the world. Several pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches were employed to treat addiction. The complexity of addiction treatment lies in the fact that there is no single treatment for all addicts. In addition, many of the available drugs have moderate efficacy and/or side effects urging the need to look for new ways of addiction treatment. In this context, medicinal plants are rich sources of therapeutic compounds and can be a promising choice for addiction treatment. Multiple studies demonstrated that various plants showed effectiveness in the treatment and/or alleviation of addiction at different levels. This chapter highlights the non-pharmacological approaches for addiction treatment and sheds the light on different studies showing values of medicinal plants in the treatment and/or alleviation of addiction.

“Just as the flowers grow from the earth, so the remedy grows in the hands of the physician”

Paracelsus, sixteenth century

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Abbreviations

5-HT3:

5-Hydroxytryptamine 3

AMPA:

α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid

BZF:

Benzoflavone moiety

CB1:

Cannabinoid receptor 1

CNS:

Central nervous system

DMT:

N,N-dimethyltryptamine

DSM:

Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders

GABA:

Gamma-aminobutyric acid

LSD:

Lysergic acid diethylamide

l-THP:

Levotetrahydropalmatine

NIDA:

National Institute on Drug Abuse

NMDA:

N-methyl-D-aspartate

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Acknowledgments

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

    Sahar Jaffal

  2. Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan

    Husam Abazid

Authors
  1. Sahar Jaffal
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  2. Husam Abazid
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Correspondence to Sahar Jaffal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK

    Vinood B. Patel

  2. Dept of Nutrition & Dietetics, King's College London, London, UK

    Victor R. Preedy

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Jaffal, S., Abazid, H. (2022). Medicinal Plants and Addiction Treatment. In: Patel, V.B., Preedy, V.R. (eds) Handbook of Substance Misuse and Addictions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67928-6_21-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67928-6_21-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-67928-6

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