Drugs of Abuse and biological psychology

Question 1

Explain what Drug Use, Drug Abuse, and Drug Dependence is.

Answer 1

Drug use: Taking a psychoactive substance for non-medical reasons, curiosity

Drug abuse: The usage of drugs that leads to some type of problem
- Maladaptive use - a spectrum of consequential/ or behaviour that has negative effects
- when withdrawal leads to negative consequences
- repetitive patterns of negative effects
- when it begins to effect daily and self committments

Drug dependence: When you need a drug to function within normal limits, psychologically and physiologically

Question 2

Describe the Nature of Addiction.

Answer 2

• Experimental drug use. - perhaps your friends like it, some don’t like it, for some it’s pleasurable.
• Pleasure Principle: we go after good feelings and avoid bad feelings.
• Casual drug use
• Intensive drug use (helps us get through the day)
• Compulsive (irresistible urge) Drug use (maladaptive)
• Addiction

Question 3

What manual do we use to diagnose mental disorders?

Answer 3

DSM-5: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. It is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides standardised criteria for the diagnosis of mental health disorders. The DSM-5 is widely used by clinicians, researchers, and mental health professionals to ensure consistent and reliable diagnoses of mental health conditions.

Question 4

What is the brains reward system and how does this relate to drug use?

Answer 4

When behaviour is rewarded, it reinforces it, leading to repetition of the behaviour. This is the activation of the reward system.

-Activation of the RS is central to problems arising from drug use
- While pharmacological mechanisms for each class of drug are different, the activation of the reward system is relatively the same across substances. They all base themselves around the RS.
- People are not equally vulnerable to developing substance-related disorders, some people are pre-disposed due to brain-based differences.

Question 5

Explain the Symptoms of Substance Use Disorder.
What is upregulation?

Answer 5

Tolerance: when a higher dose of a drug is needed to achieve the same effect as when a person first took it

Substance dependence is when a person stops using a drug, they go through:
Withdrawal: physical and mental symptoms that can be mild or life-threatening.
It’s your bodies way of letting you know that somethings missing

Substance use disorder results from:
- taking drugs/alc repeatedly
- use despites negative consequences

side note: people can be dependent on a drug, or have high tolerance WITHOUT having a substance use disorder

The biological/neurological change:
upregulate: to deal with the increase in substance. This results in tolerance

Upregulation: When you keep using a drug, your body adjusts by creating more receptors or becoming more efficient at breaking down the drug. This is called upregulation. Because of this, you need more of the drug to get the same effect, which leads to tolerance.

So, upregulation is your body’s way of adapting to the increased presence of the drug, resulting in tolerance.

Question 6

Explain Physical vs Psychological Dependence

Answer 6

Physical:
-Withdrawal symptoms
- Tolerance to drug effects with repeated use

Psychological:

First Definition (Altman et al):

When someone becomes so focused on getting, using, and recovering from a drug they lose control over their behaviour. This obsession with the drug takes over their life, causing them to neglect other activities and ignore negative consequences.

Second Definition (Bozarth):

When getting and using the drug becomes the main priority in a person’s life, driving most of their behaviour and motivation, often at the expense of other important activities.

For example: weed isn’t technically addictive - it may not have the same physical dependence, but there’s psychological dependence.
Physiological dependence can desist over time - psychological is harder to desist - many patterns have formed, relapse is common

Question 7

Instrumental/Operant learning and conditioning with drug use. Basic Definitions.

Answer 7

Reinforcer: a stimulus that follows a behaviour and increases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated

Punisher: a stimulus that follows a behaviour and decreases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated

Question 8

What are reinforcements and why are they important to drug use patterns?

Answer 8

Reinforcements work a lot with learning and help teach us.

Positive reinforcement:
The addition of a stimulus following a behaviour that increases the likelihood that the behaviour will occur again in the future

Negative Reinforcement:
The removal of a stimulus following a behaviour that increases the likelihood that the behaviour will occur again in the future

Question 9

Operant Conditioning in drug use specifics

Answer 9

Positive Reinforcement: When we engage in a drug that makes us feel good we’re likely to engage in it again

Positive Punishment: Adding something to decrease something, this happens with pharmacological treatments for drug use.

Question 10

Nature of substance use and where Operant Conditioning applies.

Answer 10

Through Experimental drug use, casual drug use, and intensive drug use - Euphoric Reinforcing effects apply. i.e positive reinforcer

In between Intensive drug use and compulsive drug use, we see Physiological and psychological dependence.

In between Compulsive drug use and addiction, we see - the removal of withdrawal states that come without being with the drug. This is negative reinforcement, guiding people to take the drug to take away withdrawal feelings.

Question 11

What are the current conceptualisations of the mechanisms of substance use disorder?

Answer 11

• Positive/ euphoric drug effect reinforces behaviours causing delivery of the drug: the drugs feel exciting and fun
• Eventually, the behaviours become habitual resulting in symptoms of dependence
  > tolerance and withdrawal
• Drug using behaviour further becomes reinforced through negative reinforcement processes where behaviour is increased as a function of the removal of aversive states
  i.e To avoid the withdrawal of drug use they continue to take the drug

Question 12

Craving and Relapse reasons

Answer 12

Why is the craving so profound? Even after long periods of abstinence?:

• Drug craving remains strong because prolonged and sustained drug use causes significant, long-term changes in the brain. These changes affect the brain’s reward system and can persist long after the drug use has stopped, making the desire for the drug very powerful.
• Tolerance: Over time, the body develops a decreased sensitivity to the drug. This happens because of homeostatic processes where the body tries to maintain a balance. As a result, more of the drug is needed to achieve the same effect, leading to increased use and more profound changes in the brain.

Relapse:
- may occur when there’s an environmental/ circumstantial setback.
Stress