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"It is therefore possible that these core clinical addiction symptoms craving and compulsion and the chronic relapsing nature of addiction may be a consequence of compromised insight," Goldstein said. Such impaired insight might help explain why drug-addicted patients often have a hard time recognizing, accepting, and/or acknowledging their own signs and symptoms of addiction, as well as the need for treatment. It could also help explain these patients' failure to comply fully with treatment regimens and their tendency to relapse.

"Deficits in insight and interoception [sensitivity to the body's internal signals] and emotional awareness have largely been ignored in the field of addiction, despite the fact that this disorder is finally recognized as a disease of the brain, amenable to intervention and treatment," Goldstein said. "My hope is that this symposium will help bridge this gap and contribute to the design of new diagnostic tools and treatment approaches, pointing us toward more effective intervention strategies to improve prognosis in this illness."

Symposium speakers are:

• A. D. (Bud) Craig, Atkinson Research Laboratory, Barrow Neurological Institute, will discuss the role of the specific brain regions in insight and interoception in healthy states and in psychopathology.
• Antoine Bechara, University of Southern California, will discuss the brain regions involved in impaired awareness of nicotine craving and concern about the potential long-term consequences in cigarette smoking.
• Hugh Garavan, School of Psychology & Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin, will discuss the role of specific brain regions in blunted awareness to errors and compromised behavioral and situational monitoring in cocaine addiction, compromises that could precipitate excessive, unintended use or relapse.
• Anna Rose Childress, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pe
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