Addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease that alters the brain’s reward circuitry and consequently leads to compulsive drug seeking and other behavioral changes. The long-lasting biological effects of drug exposure cause a multitude of adverse effects throughout the body. Despite these well-known health consequences and widespread public health campaigns to curb use of addictive drugs, prevalence remains high. Among individuals aged 12 and older in the U.S. in 2015, an estimated 30.2 million (11.3%) smoked cigarettes daily in the past month; 15.7 million (5.9%) had an alcohol use disorder and 7.7 million (2.9%) had an illicit drug use disorder in the past year [1]. Individuals with addiction often have strong desires to quit, but rates of successful treatment and recovery are low. For example, among adult U.S. smokers during 2015, an estimated 68% wanted to quit, 55% had made a quit attempt in the past year, but only 7% had recently quit [2].
