Addiction to drugs is a major contemporary public health issue, characterized by maladaptive behavior to obtain and consume an increasing amount of drugs at the expense of the individual’s health and social and personal life. Trevor Robbins, Cambridge University, discusses findings that show abnormalities in fronto-striatal brain systems implicated in self-control in both stimulant-dependent individuals and their biological siblings who have no history of chronic drug abuse; these findings support the idea of an underlying neurocognitive endophenotype for stimulant drug addiction. Trevor William Robbins CBE FRS FMedSci is a Professor of Cognitive neuroscience and former Head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. Robbins has an international reputation in the fields of cognitive neuroscience, behavioural neuroscience and psychopharmacology.

Image courtesy of interviewee