Addiction Flashcards
Characteristics Of Addiction
DEFINITION:
BPS - Physiological/ Psychological dependency on particular substance/ event
TYPES OF ADDICTION:
Behavioural: gambling, Sex, Pornography
Substance: Smoking, Alcohol, Drugs
DSM-5 AND ISSUES FOR ADDICTION:
Manual with mental illness symptoms to diagnose
However, limited ability diagnosing behavioural addiction
GRIFFITHS CRITERIA:
Salience (Most Important thing)
Mood Modification
Tolerance
Withdrawal
Conflict (Intra-Psychic/ Inter-Personnel)
Relapse
Role Of Dopamine (Biological)
MESOLIMBIC/REWARD PATHWAY:
Activated with pleasurable feeling when engage in rewarding behaviour, increased behaviour through pos reinforce
Not always bad (Eating), sometimes bad (Addiction)
VTA- Produce dopamine
NaC- Receives dopamine + pleasure feeling
TOLERANCE:
Brain tries to reach equilibrium after dopamine flood so destroys D2 receptors
WITHDRAWAL:
Less D2 receptors so can’t reach normal dopamine without addiction = withdrawal symptoms
MAINTENANCE:
Frontal Cortex = Impulse Control, Motivation
These functions impaired in addicts
Relapse still happen with no tolerance/withdrawal symptoms
Wang et al- Increased frontal lobe activity with addiction
Volkow- Start at MP move to FL
Addiction Genes (Biological)
FAMILY STUDIES:
Kendler - Bio children with addicted parents = more likely to be addicted compared to adopted children
Env factors heightened addiction in adopted children e.g. crime
A1-DRD2 + ADH:
A1 = Fewer D2 receptors so overcompensate with addiction
ADH = Less likely to be addicted as stop full metabolism of alcohol (Link to East Asia)
48% smokers have A1 variant compared to 28% non addicts
DIATHESIS STRESS:
Env + Genetic predisposition = addiction
Eysenck’s Addictive Personality (Individual Differences)
Proposed some more vulnerable to addiction due to personality, particularly high psychoticism and neuroticism
Extroversion:
Francis finding into relationship between addiction + extroversion
-10 negative
-2 positive
-12 no relationship
Conflicting results= little evidence to suggest there’s a link
Psychoticism:
High impulsivity= Don’t consider consequences so more likely to engage in addiction. May cause salience trait
Research: Impulsive individuals less successful in treatment
Research: Impulsive rats= More cocaine
Neuroticism:
Anxious, prone to depression= Use addiction for self medicating to treat problems
Research: High neuroticism in Indian heroin addicts (good as cross-cultural)
Cognitive Biases (Individual Differences)
HEURISTICS:
Availability Heuristic- Gambler only hear about wins so thinks chances of winning higher than are
Representativeness Heuristic: Believing a result is ‘due’ e.g. Monte Carlo Casino 26 blacks example gamblers fallacy
There are other bias types:
Attentional Bias- People notice things related to their addiction so normalises e.g. Smokers= longer react time on smoking related words on Stroop Test
Self-Serving Bias- Gambler attribute wins to skill, losses to ‘bad luck’ =losses not their fault so carry on
Role of Media (Social Psychological)
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:
We learn behaviour through observing role models
Learn through: Observation, Imitation, Modelling
Considers individual mental processing (cog and behaviourist)
Mediations processes take place after observation, before imitation
FACTORS MAKING IMITATION LIKELY:
Role model share same interests, is popular, through vicarious reinforcement
MEDIATIONAL PROCESSES:
Attention, Retention, Reproduction, Motivation
ADDICTIONS IN MEDIA:
Research- Tobacco decrease in films 1950-1980= Less tobacco sales
Research- Longitudinal, 2000 teenagers no intentions of drinking, follow up 1 year later 40% tried alcohol, 9% binge drinking -Thought to be caused by media
Peer Influence (Social Psychological)
PERCEIVED SOCIAL NORMS: Vary from group to group, own perceptions
INJUNCTIVE: The norm of ‘I should be doing this’
DESCRIPTIVE: Individual perception of how much someone is doing behaviour ‘Everyone is doing this’
TEENAGE BRAIN DIFFERENCE:
FMRI Scan show heightened activity in brain area responsible for weighing up reward when with friends = Make risky decision knowing friend watching
VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT:
Addict imitate behaviour of role model if role model praised for it e.g. smoking
Indirect peer pressure- No direct pressure but everyone doing it so feel have to e.g. everyone drinking at a party so you drink
Aversion Therapy (Modification)
HOW IT WORKS:
Principle of classic conditioning, associate addiction to unpleasant stimulus to illicit unpleasant response = stops addiction
ANTABUSE FOR ALCOHOL ADDICTION:
Alcohol broken down to potent toxin, then broken down by ALDH enzyme in liver
Antabuse inhibits ALDH, leaving potent toxin from alcohol in body= nausea
-Takes 10 min to work, lasts 10 hours
Stop addiction, associate alcohol with sickness
Given 200mg daily, but increases if not strong enough
Can trigger through other alcohol source e.g. mouthwash
RAPID SMOKING:
Smoker sit in closed room + smoke cigarette every 6 seconds until feel sick
Creates adversion
Less common form of aversion therapy
Antagonist And Agonist Substitution (Modification)
AGONIST (METHADONE):
-Heroin replacement
-Occupies D2 receptors, mimic dopamine from heroin
-Reduce withdrawal, but no ‘high’
-No high so reduces impulsive/disorderly behaviour associated with heroin
-Given orally = Enter blood slow unlike heroin when injected
ANTAGONIST (NALTREXONE):
-Given to those in recovery to prevent relapse after methadone finished
-Blocks D2 sites so no cellular activity
-Also used for behavioural addictions as stops dopamine
