The strategies below will help you to find articles.
Tip: For terms to use in searching, see the Finding Search Terms tab.
Use the databases on this page to look for articles. You may need to try multiple search strategies.
You will have to combine multiple search terms to find articles on this topic. You will need to combine terms together in one of three strategies:
The last strategy is not recommended, because many articles discussing the disease model don't agree that it is valid. There is likely to be difficulty in finding recent-enough articles supporting this model.
Tip: You may find more articles using terms for specific substance addictions than for addiction in general.
Use the subject headings provided by the database. For information on how to perform a subject heading search, please see the "Subject Searching in Databases" tab. This approach works well for Strategy 1, above.
You can also combine subject headings that are used by the database with key words to help you find articles.
| Subject | Limit by entering a word or words |
| Brain | abuse |
| Hippocampus (Brain), Limbic System, etc. | alcohol* |
| Neurotransmitters | narcotics |
| Dopamine, Serotonin, etc. | cocaine, heroin, etc. |
| Opioids | receptors |
The multiple search spaces in Academic OneFile's Advanced Search page make it easy to combine terms:
Take keywords you identified from Getting Started and combine them with "AND."
Use the Google Scholar search space below to search for articles on addiction as a disease. For full information on how to use Google Scholar, see our guide to Using Google Scholar.