Addiction

Question 1

Definition of substance use disorders

Answer 1

Impacting one’s life
Craving/Dependence
Diminished capacity to control one’s use

Question 2

Epidemiology of Substance Use Disorders

Answer 2

Approximately 22 million individuals 12 years and older in the U.S. met criteria for substance abuse or dependence in the past year

Substance use is a common cause of preventable and leading actual cause of death in the U.S. #1 Tobacco, #3 Alcohol, #9 Illicit drugs

Question 3

Neurobiology

Answer 3

Animal and human work implicates multiple brain regions including motivational systems and reward (ventral tegmental area to nucleus accumbens), frontal regions involved in learning, cognitive control or inhibition (prefrontal cortex), and regions involved in mood and stress reactivity.

All substances of abuse increase dopamine release in the shell of the nucleus accumbens

Rationale for why adolescents are more vulnerable to addiction than adults: reward-related circuitry processing matures earlier while neural processing of inhibition are not yet fully developed

Question 4

Symptoms of alcohol withdrawal

Answer 4

Shaky, sweating, increased HR, increased BP, seizures, hallucinations,

LIFE threatening

Question 5

Symptoms of Heroine (Opiod) withdrawal

Answer 5

Muscle aches, nausea, lacrimation, rhinorrhea, pupillary dilation, piloerection

NOT life threatening

Question 6

Symptoms of Amphetamine/Cocaine withdrawal

Answer 6

Depression, ↑sleep, ↑hunger, vivid/unpleasant dreams