It is commonly known that drug addiction involves permanent synaptic plasticity of various neuronal circuits.  Neuroproteomics is being applied to study the effect of drug addiction across the synapse.  Research is being conducted by isolating distinct regions of the brain in which synaptic transmission takes place and defining the proteome for that particular region.  Different stages of drug abuse must be studied, however, in order to map out the progression of protein changes along the course of the drug addiction.  These stages include enticement, ingesting, withdrawal, addiction, and removal.  It begins with the change in the genome through transcription that occurs due to the abuse of drugs.  It continues to identify the most likely proteins to be affected by the drugs and focusing in on that area.
For drug addiction, the synapse is the most likely target as it involves communication between neurons.  Lack of sensory communication in neurons is often an outward sign of drug abuse, and so neuroproteomics is being applied to find out what proteins are being affected to prevent the transport of neurotransmitters.  In particular, the vesicle releasing process is being  studied to identify the proteins involved in the synapse during drug abuse.  Proteins such as synaptotagmin and synaptobrevin interact to fuse the vesicle into the membrane.  Phosphorylation also has its own set of proteins involved that work together to allow the synapse to function properly.  Drugs such as morphine change properties such as cell adhesion, neurotransmitter volume, and synaptic traffic.  After significant morphine application, tyrosine kinases received less phosphorylation and thus send fewer signals inside the cell.  These receptor proteins are unable to initiate the intracellular signaling processes that enable the neuron to live, and necrosis or apoptosis may be the result.  With more and more neurons affected along this chain of cell death, permanent loss of sensory or motor function may be the result.  By identifying the proteins that are changed with drug abuse, neuroproteomics may give clinicians even earlier biomarkers to test for to prevent permanent neurological damage.
Recently, a novel terminology (Psychoproteomics) has been coined by the University of Florida researchers from Dr. Mark S Gold Lab. Kobeissy et al. defined Psychoproteomics as integral proteomics approach dedicated to studying proteomic changes in the field of psychiatric disorders, particularly substance-and drug-abuse neurotoxicity.