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cover of episode Essentials: Understanding & Treating Addiction | Dr. Anna Lembke

Essentials: Understanding & Treating Addiction | Dr. Anna Lembke

2025/6/26
logo of podcast Huberman Lab

Huberman Lab
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Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, plays a crucial role in reward and movement. The deviation from baseline dopamine levels, rather than absolute amounts, determines our experience of pleasure or pain. Individual baseline dopamine levels are influenced by genetics and experiences, potentially contributing to temperament differences and vulnerability to addiction.
  • Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in reward and movement.
  • Baseline dopamine levels are crucial, and deviations from this baseline determine pleasure or pain.
  • Genetics and experiences influence baseline dopamine levels and contribute to individual temperaments and addiction vulnerability.

Shownotes Transcript

In this Huberman Lab Essentials) episode, my guest is Dr. Anna Lembke, MD), Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic) at Stanford University School of Medicine.

We discuss how dopamine drives reward, motivation and addictive behaviors. Dr. Lembke explains the concept of the pleasure-pain balance of dopamine and how this cycle plays a key role in the development and persistence of addiction). We also discuss some of the challenges of addiction recovery, including withdrawal, relapses and the potential benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy).

Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com).

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Timestamps

00:00:00 Anna Lembke

00:00:15 Dopamine, Reward & Movement

00:01:54 Baseline Dopamine; Genetics, Temperament & Addiction

00:05:24 Addiction, Modern Life & Boredom

00:07:18 Sponsor: AG1

00:08:55 Pleasure-Pain Balance, Dopamine, Addiction

00:14:17 Resetting Dopamine, Substance or Behavior Recovery, Tool: 30-Day Abstinence

00:16:04 Relapse, Addiction, Reflexive Behavior, Empathy

00:20:17 Triggers, Relapse, Dopamine

00:23:15 Sponsor: Wealthfront & BetterHelp

00:26:04 Shame, Truth Telling & Recovery

00:28:26 Addiction, Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, Psilocybin, MDMA

00:33:29 Social Media & Addiction, Tool: Intentionality

Disclaimer & Disclosures)

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