7: Development of addiction Flashcards
What’s the definition of addiction?
A treatable brain disease characterised by compulsive behavior. The inability to (mentally) control your behavior when you know better.
What is an outdated view of looking at addiction?
That it’s a choice and under full control of the person. That punishment is the best remedy.
What the simplified view of addiction?
An imbalance between approach-oriented motivational systems and regulatory control system.
What happens when your addicted?
After repeated use of a substance the brain gets sensitized + conditioned to the drug, the positive consequences and the cues.
Cues = friends, smell, place
Which can trigger automatic use through craving and approach bias.
What brain networks are involved in the development of addiction?
Salience network
Executive control network
Reinforcement learning network
What’s the salience network?
Emotion regulation/decision making
What’s the executive control network?
Attention, working-memory, inhibition
What’s the reinforcement learning network?
Associative learning from positive and negative outcomes & development of automatic behavior
What are the 4 groups of criteria of the DSM?
Loss of control
Social problems
Pharmacological consequences > dependence
High risk use > danger
What can you say about nature & nurture?
Both are important in the development of addiction
What can you get addicted to?
Behavioral:
- Gambling and Internet Gaming acknowledged
Substances
- Cannabis addiction is real
What can you say about harm of drug use?
It doesn’t equal the severity of addiction.
Alcohol is most harmful
Why is adolescene important for addiction?
It marks the onset & escalation of drug use.
What’s the paradox of risk and resilience?
There’s a huge risk in adolescence for addiction and substance related problems
Most substance related problems that started in adolescene, resolve on their own without any formal intervention
What are risk factors?
- Hypersensitive salience network
- Hypersensitivity to social environment
- Facilitated brain plasticity and learning flexibility
- Suboptimal control in tempting situations
- Neurotoxicity during period of brain development
Why is a hypersensitive salience network a risk factor?
There is a link to alcohol use & binge drinking.
Why is hypersensitivity to social environment a risk factor?
It causes a reliance on peer relationships.
Drinking is even copied on a sip level.
What can you say about heritability?
- Increases with age
While the influence of the family environment decreases and other environments increase.
What is brain plasticity?
Dynamic biological capacity of the brain to change in response to the environment, suporting brain maturation as well as brain recovery after injury.
Involves the modulation of neuronal connection through a complex interaction between genes and environment, in which learning, memory, and the underlying genetic and cellular processes play an important role
What happens in puberty with brain plasticity?
In puberty there is a shift in plasticity towards brain areas in learning & complex cognitive functions,
- Which makes them good learners! (more from positive feedback)
- More plasticity from hippocampus than adults
What is behavioral control?
Goal-directed regulation of behavior
Control over emotions, impulses and reflective mental processes
Supports flexible moment-to-moment adaptation of behavior
What two types of control are there?
Reactive control: control in the moment, in response to things happening right now
Proactive control: control in anctipation of future events, choosing between short vs long term
Why is there suboptimal control in tempting situations?
Different sub-processes of control mature at different ages and there is a temporary imbalance in control during adolescence
= affective procession is high and proactive control is very low
How does alcohol change the brain?
New paths are formed, which get more engrained each and every time
Drug and alcohol use is related to change in brain volume of areas important for behavior control and which are related to poor cognitive performance
