Flourishing After Addiction with Carl Erik Fisher What Addiction Science Got Wrong About Dopamine, with Dr. David Nutt
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Dec 15, 2025 
David Nutt, Edmond J. Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology and outspoken drug policy researcher. He critiques the dopamine-centric view of addiction and explores why reductionist neuroscience failed. He discusses varied addiction drivers, evolving circuit models, and the promise and limits of psychedelics alongside psychotherapy.
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Reductionism Failed Without Better Diagnosis
- Reductionist optimism in neuroscience assumed mapping receptors would directly yield cures, but that expectation failed.
- Diagnostic heterogeneity and outdated regulation blocked translating molecular knowledge into effective treatments.
Dopamine Became An Oversimplified Dogma
- The dopamine narrative became a dominant but oversimplified explanation for addiction that warped research priorities.
- This belief funneled huge funds into dopaminergic targets while missing other mechanisms and wasting resources.
Regulation Choked Dopaminergic Drug Innovation
- Fear-driven regulation labeled many dopaminergic compounds as automatically addictive, stifling therapeutic development.
- This regulatory conservatism blocked improvements on useful drugs like bupropion in Britain.
