This Research Topic is the second volume of 'Novel Treatment Approaches and Future Directions in Substance Use Disorders'. Please see the first volume
here.
Substance use disorders (SUDs) range among the most widespread mental health conditions. They are multifactorial brain disorders with wide-ranging individual and societal impact. Research has already produced a variety of effective pharmacotherapies, psychosocial interventions, and recovery support services, all delivered in many different settings. Despite the growing number of evidence-based psychosocial concepts and pharmacological agents to treat SUDs they remain largely undertreated. This can be attributed to several barriers that limit the availability, accessibility, and acceptability of evidence-based treatments. Moreover, the effectiveness of available psychosocial treatment concepts is modest and pharmacotherapies are still lacking for some SUDs, like cannabis, cocaine or stimulant use disorders.
Novel and potentially effective therapies are currently in advanced stages of clinical development. However, to make progress, we need to have a clearer understanding of the pathophysiological processes that underlie the SUDs we treat as well as how the current treatment works. The limited advances in the development and approval of new medications for treating SUDs highlights the importance of developing more novel treatment approaches, for instance, by using medications that are already approved for other medical indications or by implementing new technologies to address the challenges faced by evidence-based psychosocial treatments.
The main goal of this research topic is to combine preclinical and clinical research expertise to reduce the knowledge and treatment gap, identify and describe novel treatment strategies to improve the treatment outcome in individuals who suffer from SUDs.
This Research Topic focuses on articles that exemplify the importance of rigorous research efforts in providing data as foundation to use our current approaches in novel ways to treat SUDs, modify and improve our current treatment methods and develop completely novel treatment approaches.
We encourage the submission of ‘good quality’ manuscripts pertaining to projects, interventions or well-designed studies aiming specifically to extend the current range of interventions and to improve treatment outcome for patients with SUDs. We welcome original research and review articles addressing recent findings and discussion about such topic, including:
• Preclinical studies focusing on the exploration of the neural circuit and cell-specific molecular alterations that mediate the pathophysiological processes underlying specific SUDs
• Preclinical studies investigating novel treatment targets for SUDs, such as neurocognitive function, modulation of stress and synaptic plasticity
• Preclinical and clinical studies providing data on the potential mechanisms underlying therapeutic effects of specific interventions, such as non-invasive brain stimulation, neurofeedback and novel pharmacological agents
• Clinical studies complementing evidence-based psychosocial interventions and enhance their outcomes with additional pharmacotherapy
• Clinical studies implementing new technologies as a potential vehicle to address the challenges faced by evidence-based psychosocial treatment.