Progress in research on relationship between gut microbiota and drug addiction and related neuropsychiatric diseases / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

Drug addiction has not only seriously damaged the addicts' health, but also caused a huge social and economic burden, threatening public safety. Meanwhile, the number of drug addicts continues to rise and the relapse rate remains high. Actually drug addiction is a kind of chronic brain disease. It is of no avail to reduce the psychological requirement of addicts via alternative drug treatments such as methadone, non-pharmacological treatments, surgical treatment, mindfulness therapy, and repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation etc. In fact, the rate of relapse is still high, accompanied by a series of huge limitations. Therefore, it is of great importance to find new therapeutic drugs and methods for drug addiction. In recent years, numerous studies of intestinal flora and neuropsychiatric diseases have been reported, gradually revealing the link between the intestinal microbiota and the nervous system. With the discovery of the "microbiota-gut-brain axis", the effect of gut microbiota on related aspects of drug addiction has won increasing attention. As a result, this thesis will review the research progress of the relationship between gut microbiota, neuropsychiatric diseases and drug addiction by means of looking up domestic and foreign documents.