Understanding and researching addiction through the brain disease model of addiction has provided numerous benefits including:

• Helping researchers understand specific neurobiological processes involved in loss of control, compulsive drug use, rigid behavior, and negative emotional states
• Revealing molecules and circuits of addiction has resulted in multiple effective medications (naloxone, buprenorphinenaloxone, and varenicline)
• The knowledge provided by the BDMA has also become. thebasis for using stimulation techniques to strengthen brain circuits with promising results
• The knowledge provided by the BDMA has also given clinicians a framework for specific and targeted interventions that strengthen the impaired brain circuits
• There have been positive effects on public policy surrounding addiction including the 2008 passing of the parity law, which requires insurance to cover costs associated with addiction treatment (the first time ever in the US)
• It also provides benefits for treatment because the model helps reduce the stigma attached to addiction as being a moral failing