Abstract
Drug use and addiction are significant problems facing most societies. Neuroscience promises to reduce the incidence and harms of drug use through the development of more effective treatments targeted at changes in the brain produced by chronic drug use and by identifying persons most likely to develop harmful drug use and preventing them from becoming addicted. By locating the source of addictive behavior in the brain, neuroscience may be seen to account for some addicted individuals’ criminal behavior and justify the use of coercive interventions to treat their addiction. Neuropharmacological interventions used to treat drug addiction may also be co-opted by healthy individuals to enhance their normal cognition. In this chapter we introduce the reader to Addiction Neuroethics, the ethical issues raised by proposed and potential applications of neuroscience research on addiction.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Begg, S., Vos, T., Barker, B., et al. (2007). The burden of disease and injury in Australia 2003. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Campbell, N. D. (2012). Medicalization and biomedicalization: Does the diseasing of addiction fit the frame? In J. Netherland (Ed.), Critical perspectives on addiction (Advances in medical sociology, Vol. 14, pp. 3–25). Bradford: Emerald Group.
Carter, A., & Hall, W. (2012). Addiction neuroethics: The promises and perils of neuroscience research on addiction. London: Cambridge University Press.
Dackis, C., & O’Brien, C. (2005). Neurobiology of addiction: Treatment and public policy ramifications. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 1431–1436.
Heyman, G. (2009). Addiction: A disorder of choice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Koob, G. F., & Le Moal, M. (2006). Neurobiology of addiction. New York: Academic.
Leshner, A. I. (1997). Addiction is a brain disease, and it matters. Science, 278, 45–47.
McLellan, A. T., Lewis, D. C., O’Brien, C. P., et al. (2000). Drug dependence, a chronic medical illness: Implications for treatment, insurance, and outcomes evaluation. Journal of the American Medical Association, 284, 1689–1695.
Midanik, L. T. (2004). Biomedicalization and alcohol studies: Implications for policy. Journal of Public Health Policy, 25, 211–228.
ONDCP. (2004). The economic costs of drug abuse in the United States. Washington, DC: Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Rehm, J., Room, R., van den Brink, W., et al. (2005). Problematic drug use and drug use disorders in EU countries and Norway: An overview of the epidemiology. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 15, 389–397.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Carter, A., Hall, W.D. (2015). What Is Addiction Neuroethics?. In: Clausen, J., Levy, N. (eds) Handbook of Neuroethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4707-4_67
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4707-4_67
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4706-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4707-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law