Drug addiction remains one of the most important public health problems in western societies
and is a rising concern for developing nations. Over the past 3 decades experimental research
on the neurobiology and psychology of drug addiction has generated a torrent of exciting data
from the molecular up to the behavioral levels. As a result a new and pressing challenge for
addiction research is to formulate a synthetic theoretical framework that goes well beyond mere
scientific eclectism to deepen our understanding of drug addiction and to foster our capacity
to prevent and to cure drug addiction. Intrigued by the apparent irrational behavior of drug
addicts researchers from a wide range of scientific disciplines have formulated a plethora of
theoretical schemes over the years to understand addiction. However most of these theories and
models are qualitative in nature and are formulated using terms that are often ill-defined. As
a result the empirical validity of these models has been difficult to test rigorously which
has served to generate more controversy than clarity. In this context as in other scientific
fields mathematical and computational modeling should contribute to the development of more
testable and rigorous models of addiction.
