Addiction Mini-Lecture

Question 1

Drug

Answer 1

• Substance used to bring about a change in some existing process of state (psychological, physical, biochemical)
• Chemical entity, other than those providing maintenance of normal health, that alters normal biological functioning

Question 2

How are drugs categorized?

Answer 2

By behavioral or pharmacological effects
- Stimulants (caffeine, aderall, nicotine)
- Depressants (alcohol)
- Opioids (fentynal)
- Hallucinogens (LCD/acid)
- Psychothereapeutics (prozac, thorazine)

Question 3

Top abused drugs

Answer 3

• Marijuana
• Prescription pain relievers
• Prescription tranquilizers
• Cocaine
• Prescription stimulants

Question 4

Substance Abuse

Answer 4

• A pattern of compulsive substance use marked by recurrent significant social, occupational, legal, or interpersonal adverse consequences.
• From the DSM V
• Defined by severity from mild to severe
• Distinct terms for each substance
• Drug craving added
• Exclusion of legal problems from the DSMIV
• Behavioral addictions
• Not the same as just drug use

Question 5

Medical Model of Addiction

Answer 5

An individual with addiction suffers from a chronic brain disease, which can lead to difficulties in stopping use

Question 6

Moral Model of Addiction

Answer 6

An individual who chooses drugs over work, family, and society due to personal morals and weaknesses

Question 7

Positive Reinforcement

Answer 7

Doing a behavior increases likelihood of reinforcement (rat pressing a lever for a reward)

Question 8

Negative Reinforcement

Answer 8

Involves removing an aversive stimulus after a behavior, which increases the likelihood of that behavior being repeated (rat presses the level in order to not receive a foot shock)

Question 9

Positive Punishment

Answer 9

Adding an Aversive stimulus after a behavior, which decreases the likelihood of that behavior being repeated (rate presses the wrong lever and gets a shock)

Question 10

Negative Punishment

Answer 10

Removing a desired stimulus after a behavior, decreasing the likelihood of that behavior being repeated (rat presses a lever which increases the time-out period between reinforcers)

Question 10

Conditioned Place Preference/Aversion Paradigm

Answer 10

• Block passage between rooms for a mouse
• Experimenter gives drug injections paired with 1 room and control injections with the other room (repeat)
• On test day, there is not drug and the passage is opened
• Made to test if drugs are rewarding or not

Question 11

What drugs will animals self-administer?

Answer 11

• Animals self-administer all drugs except hallucinogens

Question 12

Progressive Ratio Tests

Answer 12

Test of motivation/how hard an animals is willing to work for a drug. The point at which the animal stops responding is the breakpoint

Question 13

What features of addiction can we model?

Answer 13

• Drug taking
• Drug seeking
• Resistance to punishment
• Escalation of motivation
• Relapse

Question 14

Theories of Addiction

Answer 14

• Focus on the function of dopamine
• Dopamine signaling from the Ventral Tegmental Area to the Nucleus Accumbens implicated in rewarding effects of drugs and other rewards

Question 15

Allostasis Model

Answer 15

• Popularized by George Koob and colleagues
• Predicts that compulsive drug use is a result of wanting to relieve the negative side effects of drug withdrawal that are brought on by the brain’s stress systems

Question 16

Issues of the Allostasis Model

Answer 16

• No straight correlation between the craving with drugs and withdrawal
• If withdrawal is seen as a bad thing why would a cue associated with the cause of said withdrawal enhance dopamine release

Question 17

Support of the Allostasis Model

Answer 17

• Withdrawal is associated with low dopamine
• Drugs increase mood and release dopamine
• Drugs withdrawal symptoms are fixed by taking drugs