#addictionresearch — Public Fediverse posts

DATE: August 22, 2026 at 10:46PM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEED

TITLE: Quitting alcohol may prime the brain for relapse

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260822015148.htm

Mice that developed compulsive drinking after alcohol abstinence showed more than double the activity in a brain region associated with stress and addiction. Because the signal appeared before they drank again, researchers think it could eventually help predict who is most at risk of relapse.

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260822015148.htm

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DATE: August 21, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: What psychological science actually says about pornography and addiction

URL: https://www.psypost.org/what-psychological-science-actually-says-about-pornography-and-addiction/

Porn is a topic we tend to avoid talking about – whether it be at school, work or around the dinner table.

But in Australia, roughly three-quarters of men (76%) and more than one-third of women (41%) report to have looked at pornographic material in the past year.

And among Australians aged 15-20, more than half (54%) of young men and one in seven (14%) young women report accessing porn weekly.

You may have heard the term “porn addiction” used to describe the excessive consumption of porn, in ways that disrupt a person’s life or the lives of those around them.

But is porn actually addictive? Current research suggests the answer is rather complicated.

The debate about porn

For many people, watching porn is a fairly typical behaviour. Others, however, consider it to be problematic.

A 2025 inquiry examined the effects of porn on people’s mental, emotional and physical health. It concluded porn is not inherently harmful. It may, however, impact people differently depending on what it depicts, who consumes it and how it is consumed.

Excessive porn use may become a problem if it affects how a person functions in daily life. To describe this, researchers and clinicians use the term problematic porn use. This refers to the inability to control one’s porn consumption despite repeated attempts to do so, and experiencing negative consequences as a result.

A global survey found 3%–15% of people potentially experience problematic porn use. And these difficulties are generally more common among men.

What causes it?

Problematic porn use is a complex issue and is influenced by various factors. These include pre-existing neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions, such as ADHD or depression. Certain personality traits such as impulsivity, low self-control and novelty seeking may also contribute.

Social and cultural factors such as low relationship satisfaction, social isolation and religious influences are also relevant. And people who feel lonely or lack emotional support are more at risk of developing this issue.

For many people with problematic porn use, consuming porn can become a vicious cycle that draws attention away from their relationships and daily responsibilities. For example, a person’s excessive porn use could see them lose their job due to poor performance. They may also become isolated from friends and family. These consequences often worsen their mental health and daily functioning, making it even harder to control their porn consumption.

People can experience problematic porn use in different ways. Researchers have suggested several key presentations including:

• compulsivity, defined as a strong, hard-to-resist urge for porn, particularly to relieve built-up tension or anxiety
•

• impulsivity, which leads to speedy, spontaneous engagements with porn without considering consequences, for instance using porn on a work computer
•

• emotional dysregulation, when a person turns to porn to manage difficult emotions such as stress, boredom or loneliness
•

• addiction-like experiences, such as having intense cravings and/or needing more extreme content to feel satisfied.
•

Is porn actually addictive?

Problematic porn use is currently considered a type of compulsive sexual behaviour disorder. Such disorders are characterised by an inability to control intense, repetitive sexual impulses for at least six months, to the point of neglecting daily responsibilities.

At this stage, problematic porn use is not formally recognised as an addiction. It is not included as an addiction in the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases or the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Illnesses, two international systems used to define and diagnose medical conditions.

Importantly, research on this topic has grown dramatically since these manuals came out. Evidence, including a recent international review, suggests problematic porn use can in some cases function like an addiction.

There are mounting calls to classify problematic porn use as a behavioural addiction, which would put it in the same category as other addictive online behaviours, such as gambling and gaming disorders. These behaviours light up similar areas of the brain’s reward system. However, activities such as drinking water trigger a similar response, so it’s important to consider this research in context.

The recent landmark social media addiction trial in the United States ruled that tech giants Meta and Google had engineered their platforms to be intentionally addictive. Similar design components are also used on many popular tube-sites – free platforms where porn videos are uploaded and watched. Modern internet porn offers unlimited access to sexual novelty by allowing people to “tab-switch” and continually seek new content during so-called “binges”. Research shows both behaviours may be risk factors for problematic porn use.

However, there is reason to be cautious about describing problematic porn use as an addiction. Research consistently shows many people self-identify as being addicted to porn, even if their use is infrequent and generally under control. This is due to moral incongruence, which is when a person holds strong moral or religious beliefs against pornography, but continues to use it. This can cause significant distress or a strong sense of feeling addicted, even with controlled use, and has been linked to several underlying mental health conditions.

What you can do

If you or a loved one feels like your porn use is problematic, here are some practical steps you can take.

• unpack what’s driving this behaviour to ensure you get the right treatment. For example, is it a genuine loss of control, moral conflicts about porn use and/or underlying conditions such as depression?
•

• contact a qualified professional who specialises in problematic porn use. Psychologists can assess whether your consumption is more compulsive, impulsive or addiction-like. They can suggest evidence-based treatments, such as cognitive behavioural therapy. Sexologists and sex therapists can also help you understand how you engage with porn and develop healthier behaviours
•

• be aware there is a significant amount of misinformation in this space, including from unqualified therapists and coaches who do not use evidence-based approaches
•

• broach any conversation about porn use with respect and care, as this topic can carry strong feelings of shame, fear or guilt.
•

For urgent support, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.

Correction: this article originally stated the number of young women accessing porn weekly was one-fifth. This has been corrected to state one in seven.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/what-psychological-science-actually-says-about-pornography-and-addiction/

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DATE: August 14, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Fluid brain circuits drive the formation of cocaine habits

URL: https://www.psypost.org/fluid-brain-circuits-drive-the-formation-of-cocaine-habits/

As animals learn to self-administer cocaine, a specific network of brain cells rapidly expands to acquire the habit and then shrinks as the behavior becomes automatic. The composition of this network constantly changes, revealing how the brain flexibly manages addictive behaviors. The study detailing these changing brain dynamics was published in bioRxiv.

Substance use disorders often begin with an initial learning period that later morphs into a deeply ingrained habit. Transitioning between these phases requires distinct mental efforts, yet the physical brain changes that support this shift remain somewhat mysterious. University of Pittsburgh researchers Linjie Jin, Xiguang Qi, and Yan Dong wanted to understand how brain networks adapt during this process.

They focused on the nucleus accumbens, a region deep in the forebrain that processes rewards, pleasure, and motivation. The main cells in this area are called medium spiny neurons. These neurons fire electrical signals in response to things like food or drugs, forming an active group called a neuronal ensemble. The researchers suspected this ensemble might change as an animal progresses from acquiring a drug habit to maintaining it.

In a small study, the researchers trained male mice to self-administer cocaine. The animals were placed in operant conditioning chambers, which are specialized testing environments where animals learn to associate a specific action with an outcome. These boxes contained two levers, with one active lever programmed to deliver the drug.

When a mouse pressed the active lever, it received an infusion of cocaine along with a flash of light and a sound cue. Over an eleven-day period, the team recorded the animals’ behavior during daily two-hour sessions. The researchers wanted to track the exact physical paths the animals took as they learned the task.

Using a machine learning algorithm called DeepLabCut to track video recordings, they mapped the coordinates of the mice as they moved around the testing chamber. During the early days of training, the mice wandered randomly before pressing the lever. By the end of the eleven days, their behavior stabilized into a highly repetitive routine. The animals developed stereotyped, circular walking patterns immediately before and after taking the drug.

Their entries and exits from the lever area followed a highly consistent path. This circular movement pattern was not seen in a control group of mice trained to seek sugar. The specific physical routine suggested that the cocaine habit was becoming an automatic behavioral response over time. The total distance the mice traveled also increased across the training days, matching a known phenomenon where repeated cocaine use sensitizes motor activity.

To see what was happening inside the brain as this habit formed, the team used a technique called in vivo calcium imaging. They injected a specialized virus into the mice’s brains that caused the medium spiny neurons to produce a fluorescent protein. This protein was designed to react to changes in internal cellular activity.

When a neuron fires an electrical signal, calcium ions flood into the cell. The engineered protein binds to this calcium and emits a tiny flash of light. A microscopic lens implanted directly into the brain captured these flashes, allowing researchers to watch individual neurons turn on and off in real time while the mice were awake and moving.

The researchers observed that a specific set of neurons reliably lit up in the five seconds immediately after a mouse pressed the cocaine lever. During the first three days of training, the sheer number of these active neurons rapidly increased. The brain seemed to recruit a massive amount of cellular resources to learn the new drug-taking rule.

As the training progressed and the physical movements of the mice became automatic routines, the size of this active network began to shrink. By the ninth and eleventh days, the number of responding neurons dropped back down to the lower levels seen on day one.

The researchers noted that the intensity of each individual neuron’s signal stayed exactly the same across the entire experiment. The brain did not dial down the volume of the cells. Instead, fewer cells were needed to execute the established habit.

This pattern of broad recruitment followed by pruning is not unique to biological brains. The authors noted that artificial neural networks learn in a similar way. During initial training, reducing the size of an artificial network impairs its performance, showing that abundant computational resources are necessary to learn a task. Once the network is trained, many connections can be stripped away without affecting the final output.

The team also tracked individual neurons over consecutive days to see if the exact same cells made up this network over time. They used imaging software to match the shape, spatial position, and activity patterns of specific neurons from one testing session to the next.

They found that the network was highly fluid. Only about one quarter of the neurons that responded to a lever press on one day would respond again two days later. Individual cells constantly dropped into and out of the active group. The overall behavioral output remained consistent, but the physical makeup of the cellular network driving it was entirely dynamic.

The experimental design involved a few limitations. The imaging process focused exclusively on male mice. The researchers noted that the heavy head-mounted microscope equipment caused less behavioral disruption in the larger males, helping them achieve a more stable response rate.

The study also did not distinguish between different subtypes of medium spiny neurons. The nucleus accumbens contains cells with distinct receptors that respond differently to the chemical messenger dopamine. Some neurons possess D1 receptors, while others possess D2 receptors. These different subtypes are thought to play distinct and sometimes opposing roles in reward processing and movement.

The five-second window following a lever press includes the physical act of pressing, the onset of a cue light, and the physical sensation of the drug entering the bloodstream. The identified network of neurons is likely a composite of several smaller groups processing each of these separate stimuli. Tracking a larger number of individual cells in future experiments could help separate these overlapping signals.

The ever-changing nature of this cellular network challenges traditional ideas about how habits are stored in the brain. A fluid membership might allow the brain to constantly update learned information while maintaining a steady behavioral output. The flexibility of these cells ensures that the addiction remains firmly rooted even as individual neurons tag out.

The study, “Refinement of Nucleus Accumbens Neuronal Dynamics During Cocaine Self-Administration Training,” was authored by Linjie Jin, Xiguang Qi, Jianwei Liu, William J. Wright, Terra A. Schall, King-Lun Li, Bo Zeng, Charles Wang, Lirong Wang, and Yan Dong.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/fluid-brain-circuits-drive-the-formation-of-cocaine-habits/

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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 10:36AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEED

TITLE: Ozempic may have revealed the brain’s hidden “craving center”

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011138.htm

Ozempic-like drugs appear to weaken more than hunger—they may also reduce cravings for alcohol and other addictive substances. Scientists are increasingly tracing this effect to the lateral septum, a brain region that helps connect memories and surroundings with rewarding experiences. Packed with GLP-1 receptors, it may act as a crucial control point between thinking about a reward and feeling compelled to pursue it. The discovery could open new approaches to treating addiction as well as obesity.

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011138.htm

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Is Food Addiction Real? Just in Time for Thanksgiving!

Food Addiction: The “Addiction” We All Talk About

Many of us have joked about being “addicted” to ice cream or chips, describing an intense craving that feels impossible to resist. This common experience is at the heart of a serious scientific debate: Is Food Addiction (FA) a genuine addiction, similar to substance addiction? 

The conversation has grown more complex as modern definitions of addiction have expanded.

Influential bodies like the American Society of Addiction Medicine no longer require the ingestion of a psychoactive substance for something to be considered an addiction. Similarly, behavioral addictions like gambling disorder are now formally recognized. This has intensified the scientific inquiry into whether addictive-like eating fits the same mold. 

To find answers, a recent longitudinal study looked at the role of emotion regulation, how we handle our feelings, to compare food addiction and substance misuse.

The findings were surprising, revealing critical differences in the emotional pathways that drive these behaviors. This article breaks down the three most impactful takeaways that challenge what we think we know about food addiction.

1. The Counter-Intuitive Role of Positive Emotions in Food Addiction

Takeaway 1: Acting on a Good Mood Predicts Substance Misuse, But Deters Food Addiction.

One of the study’s most unexpected findings relates to “positive urgency.” It’s described as a psychological trait. One defined as the tendency to act impulsively when experiencing strong positive emotions, like feeling overjoyed or extremely happy.

The research, which tracked women over six months, found a striking divergence.

A one-unit increase in a person’s positive urgency score was associated with: 

• A 100% to 200% increase in the odds of future alcohol or drug-related problems. 
• A 50% decrease in the odds of future food addiction. 

Why would feeling good lead to such different outcomes?

The researchers suggest it comes down to the reinforcing power of the substance or behavior.

Individuals high in positive urgency may seek to amplify or extend their good feelings, and psychoactive substances are far more effective at this than food.

The study’s authors explain: Women with greater positive urgency may tend to select psychoactive substances such as alcohol or drugs that can more effectively amplify or prolong their positive feelings, rather than food. Food’s effects are less potent and thus less reinforcing than psychoactive substances. 

This discovery is significant because it highlights a fundamental difference in the emotional triggers for food addiction versus substance misuse.

While a good mood might increase the risk for substance misuse, it appears to have the opposite effect on addictive-like eating.

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2. How We Judge Our Feelings Matter… But Differently

Takeaway 2: Not Accepting Your Negative Emotions Has Opposite Effects on Food Addiction vs. Alcohol-Related Problems

Another key aspect of emotion regulation is the “non-acceptance of one’s negative emotions.”

This is the tendency to have self-critical or judgmental reactions like shame, guilt, or frustration to your own distressing feelings. 

Here again, the study found that this trait was linked to food addiction and alcohol-related problems in opposite ways: 

• Non-acceptance was associated with more severe food addiction symptoms.
• Non-acceptance was associated with less severe alcohol-related problems.

The researchers hypothesize that this difference may be rooted in social stigma.

Women who feel ashamed of their negative emotions might turn to food as a coping mechanism because overeating is often viewed as less stigmatized than alcohol misuse.

The study references other research showing that the label “food addict” is perceived as less shameful than “substance or alcohol addiction.” This suggests that societal norms and the fear of judgment can profoundly shape which coping behaviors we adopt.

3. The Complicated Truth About Negative Moods and Food Addiction

Takeaway 3: The Link Between Bad Moods and Bingeing Isn’t a Simple One

The idea that we eat to soothe bad feelings, often called “emotional eating,” is a popular one. This is related to the concept of “negative urgency,” or the tendency to act impulsively when experiencing strong negative emotions. 

At first glance, the study’s data seemed to support this common belief.

When looking at a single point in time, the researchers found that negative urgency was a common link between both food addiction and substance misuse. 

However, when they analyzed the data over time in a more sophisticated multivariate model, the picture changed dramatically.

After controlling for other emotion-regulation factors, negative urgency was not a significant predictor of future food addiction or substance misuse problems. 

This doesn’t mean bad moods are irrelevant.

Rather, it suggests that negative urgency might be a “fellow traveler.” It’s present alongside the true driver, but not in the driver’s seat itself.

When the researchers statistically controlled for the powerful effect of positive urgency, the predictive signal from negative urgency faded away. This finding challenges the simple narrative that “feeling bad leads to addiction” and reveals that, over the long term, other emotional factors are far more influential.

Conclusion: A Different Kind of Struggle

While food addiction and substance addiction share surface-level similarities like cravings and loss of control, this new research paints a picture of two surprisingly different psychological profiles.

One is characterized by impulsivity in good times, which predicts substance misuse, while the other is marked by self-judgment in bad times, which predicts addictive-like eating.

This challenges the one-size-fits-all model of addiction. 

The study’s overall conclusion is clear: “These findings suggest that FA [Food Addiction] is not associated with the same key deficits in emotion regulation as SA [Substance Addiction].” 

This leaves us with a critical question to consider:

If the emotional drivers for food addiction and substance addiction are so different, does this mean we need to rethink how we talk about, prevent, and treat addictive-like eating? 

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#addictionResearch #bingeEating #copingAndEmotions #eatingDisorders #emotionalEating #emotionalRegulation #evidenceBasedPractice #foodAddiction #negativeUrgency #positiveUrgency #shame #stigmaAndShame #substanceMisuse #traumaAndAddiction #treatmentImplications #womensMentalHealth

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Alcohol in Tanzania: Study Unveils Social Bonds, Health Risks, and Gendered Stigma https://researchinenglish.com/article/2024.0/alcohol-in-northern-study-unveils-social-and-20zagyql

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