addiction

Question 1

why is addiction to nicotine common?

Answer 1

effects short lived

Question 2

what % of alcohol users meet criteria for alcohol use disorder?

Answer 2

6%

Question 3

what are some drugs that are less associated with addiction?

Answer 3

MDMA
psychedelics

highly compatible with daily life

Question 4

what brain damage risks are associated with excessive cocaine use?

Answer 4

stroke, seizures and lesions

reduced volume in inferior portion of the frontal lobe

Question 5

which neuropathologies is heroin associated with?

Answer 5

reduction in grey and white matter, brain hypoxia (reduced oxygen availability), myelopathy (paralysis)
etc

Question 6

what is alcoholism strongly linked to?

Answer 6

wernicke-korsakoff syndrome

wernicke - brain shrinkage
korsakoff - end stage of brain shrinkage and characterised by inability to remember new things

Question 7

neuropathologies associated with cannabis?

Answer 7

brain volume reduced in hippocampus and amygdala

can induce psychosis (twice as likely to get it if heavy user) but could be self-medicating not the cause

Question 8

what % who regularly use drugs become addicted?

Answer 8

10-20%

Question 9

what is the genetic contribution to addiction?

Answer 9

around 50%

Question 10

what are the 4 causes of addiction?

Answer 10

1. cue reactivity - effects of drug related cues
2. effects of drug tolerance and withdrawal
3. dugs influence on processing rewards and incentives
4. self-medication in mental illness

Question 11

example of cue reactivity?

Answer 11

surrounded by old friends who smoke

leads to relapse

Question 12

what is extinction?

in terms of cue reactivity as a cause of addiction

Answer 12

reducing strength of the association between drug cue and taking drug

true extinction = going to cue and not performing behaviour instead of avoiding cue (old friends)

Question 13

what is the associative learning theory?

in terms of cue reactivity as a cause of addiction

Answer 13

drug is reinforcer which strengthens asociations between drug-related cues and drug use

drug cue: smoking friends or experience associated with drug

response: smoking
reinforcer: nicotine euphoria after smoking

Question 14

what is conditioned compensatory response?

what happens when the cue disappears?

in terms of drug tolerance and withdrawal as a cause of addiction

Answer 14

develop tolerance (compensate for the effects of it)

placebo would lead to same compensatory behaviour

so cue created compensatory behaviour not drug itself

but without cue the body won’t produce the compensatory behaviour therefore increasing chance of overdose (supported by Siegel study with rats taking heroin in different enviros)

Question 15

what is tolerance?

what are the negative and positive effects of it?

Answer 15

form of homeostatic protection to reduce harmful effects of drug

limited when conditions necessary for it to work are absent

leads to increase of doses to have the same desired effect

Question 16

what is the link between tolerance and withdrawal (explaining why withdrawal symptoms lead to addiction)?

Answer 16

tolerance = riase blood pressure and HR

discontinue drug = abnormally high blood pressure and HR (withdrawal symptoms)

so avoided

Question 17

reward associated with drugs as a cause?

Answer 17

addictive as exceptionally rewarding (as shown by activation in nucleus accumbens)

Question 18

what is the ahedonia hypothesis?

in terms of reward associated with drugs as a cause

Answer 18

dopaminergic synapses convey ‘goodness’ and pleasure associated with a reward

Question 19

what does the incentive salience theory state?

in terms of reward associated with drugs as a cause

Answer 19

dopaminergic circuit is responsible for motivation to obtain drug not pleasure obtained from it

addicts become sensitised to drugs
and repeated use leads to greater responses in the dopamine circuit

Question 20

describe drug taking as self-medicaion in mental illness as a cause of addiction?

Answer 20

high comorbidity between mental ilness and substance dependence

1. drug could cause mental illness
2. mental illness could cause drug dependence through self-medication

Question 21

evidence for mental illness causing drug use?

Answer 21

stress to ppts decreased the delay to initiate smoking when abstinence was rewarded wth money

increased intensity of smoking and made it more rewarding