Addiction Flashcards
What is addiction?
A psychological and physical dependency on a behaviour that can include ingestion of a mind-altering substance (alcohol, tobacco, heroin etc)
Hallmarks of addiction
-Dependency – potent desire, craving. -Inability to control behaviour.
-Withdrawal – negative feelings upon cessation
-Harm – continued use despite knowledge of harm
-Tolerance – more of the drug/behaviour needed to obtain the same effect.
Why do people appear to do recreational drugs?
- Relieve boredom
- Temporarily switch off ‘conscious’ mind
- Become more spiritual
Main areas of the brain affected by addiction ‘drug hijacking’ natural reward systems of the brain
Hippocampus - memory
Amygdala - emotion
Nucleus accumbens - pleasure center
Pre-frontal cortex
Difference between strong addictive and weaker less addictive drugs on the Nucleus accumbens
Strong addictive drugs = effect within the nucleus accumbens = have stronger effects
Less addictive drugs ie caffine = affect the outside perimeter of the nucleus accumbens has less effects of reward centre
What is the key neurotransmitter involved in addiction?
Dopamine
How do individuals become addicted? in terms of psychological and social factors.
Psychological = low self-esteem / loneliness
Social = peer pressure
Biological =
In terms of early theories, explain addiction
Early theories would explain that addiction would occur due to the positive ‘euphoric’ effects of drugs when first taking them leading us to take them again
As well as the negative effects (withdrawal) that occur when you stop taking the drug.
(ie reinforcement) positive and negative
Limitations of early theory of addiction ie ‘euphoric effect’
Argued that not everyone’s first experience of trying drugs for the first time is pleasant. However, the desired effects are learnt over time. The pairing of the pleasurable effect of drug over time.
In terms of taking drugs to avoid negative feelings does not explain relapse after dependency and withdrawal has worn off (Lamb et al 1991)
Explain Incentive sensitisation theory (robinson & berridge, 1993)
- Links biological (esp dopamine system) and psychological mechanisms in addiction
- Users become sensitized to the rewarding effects of drug
as well as cues associated with the drug - pleasure v craving
Describe how learning theory (Pavlog 1995) explains drug cues.
Neutral stimulus = packet of cigarettes
Unconditioned stimulus = nicotine
After frequent pairing of the two…
Packet of cigarettes becomes = conditioned stimulus
and Nicotine becomes = conditioned response
Simply = association of the drug can trigger cravings
How would you test Learning theory for drug addiction?
What did Townshend and Dukas (2001) study find?
Pictures of words associated to specific drugs
Townshend and Duka (2001)
study to see if Reaction Times to alcohol pictures differed between heavy versus occasional social drinkers
Findings: Heavy social drinkers = a significantly faster reaction to pictures of alcohol suggesting = more noticeable / important to heavy drinkers in compared to social drinkers
Limitations of Townshends study and possible other study’s (stafford et al 2019)
-difficult to replicate effects within other studies
-Another study looked at coffee consumers and found that frequent coffee consumers were significantly better at identifying the lowest odor of coffee detectable compared to non-coffee consumers. (stafford et al 2019)
How does addiction of highly rewarding drugs hijack the natural reward system?
Ingesting a highly rewarding drug - morphine/heroin is telling the brain something really good has arrived…
* …so ‘falsely’ signals some advantage/benefit
* Potent control on dulling pain/reducing appetite….add to this severe withdrawal symptoms
* Easy to see how Wanting (craving) increases, though Liking reduces
Describe the importance of context -siegel, 1984
-concluded from observation
Explained that taking drugs may not always be a simple chemical reaction
-many heroin addicts were overdosing when not in their usual environment ie home.
-often the same dosage of the drug, but the environment changed
-environment acts a preparation for the consumption of the drug
-Were not prepared = overdose.
Same effects were demonstrated on rodents.
