to stop taking the drug. These effects explain why persons with addiction can be sincere in their desire and intention to stop using a drug and yet simultaneously impulsive and unable to follow through on their resolve. Thus, altered signaling in prefrontal regulatory circuits, paired with changes in the circuitry involved in reward and emotional response, creates an imbalance that is crucial to both the gradual development of compulsive behavior in the addicted disease state and the associated inability to voluntarily reduce drug-taking behavior, despite the potentially catastrophic consequences.
