Chronic abuse of psychostimulants remains a
severe problem across the world, inflicting extensive physical, emotional andeconomic harm; however, there are still no effective treatments to date. Thus,
there is an urgent need to better understand the brain mechanisms that underlie
addiction so that new targets can be developed.
Chronic abuse of psychoactive drugs produces
profound changes in neurotransmitter transporters and receptors, which have
been associated with manifestations of many addiction phenotypes such as
tolerance/sensitization, dependence and withdrawal. Although the molecularmechanisms underlying psychostimulant-induced changes in transporters andreceptors remain elusive, emerging evidence implicates brain lipids as
potential mediators. This review aims to provide a current understanding of the
association between chronic psychostimulant exposure and brain membrane lipid
profile and highlight the potential contribution of dysregulated brain membrane
lipids to altered neurotransmission and associated addiction behavior. The
impact of psychostimulant exposure on membrane phospholipid-derived
intracellular lipid signaling was extensively reviewed elsewhere.
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