New Evidence for Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors As Targets for
Alcoholism Therapy  Volume 20, Number 3, September 2009  Joyce
Besheer, Ph.D.        All drugs of abuse produce distinct
interoceptive/subjective effects that are perceived by the
individual and can be distinguished from a non-drug state. For
example, after drinking a glass of wine you may feel
lightheaded, dizzy, sleepy or relaxed. These subjective effects
represent a major controlling process that regulates drug-
seeking behavior. Understanding the processes in the brain that
affect these subjective effects is key to understanding how
alcohol and other substances of abuse gain control over behavior
in addiction. The neurobiological mechanisms that regulate how
the brain perceives alcohol are not yet fully understood. For
decades, researchers have examined the glutamatergic system in
the brain to better understand the effects of alcohol. Recently,
a specific subtype of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGlu5)
has been identified as a potential t