Alan I. Leshner

Addiction is a biobehavioral disorder—a brain disease that leads to compulsive behaviors that in turn have negative health consequences for the addict, asserts Alan I. Leshner in the following viewpoint. Although addicts first voluntarily choose to use drugs, claims Leshner, research shows that their brains become altered by drug use, and most are unable to stop without medical help. Unfortunately, he argues, old ideas about the nature of addiction—that addicts are simply too weak willed to quit—keep people from seeing addiction as a chronic illness much like other brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s that affect behavior. Leshner is director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. In Leshner’s opinion, why are physical withdrawal...