Neurobiology of Addiction

Question 1

What are the ICD-10 criteria of dependence?

Answer 1

a strong desire to take the substance; difficulties of controlling substance use; physiological withdrawal state; tolerance; neglect of alternative pleasures; persistence despite evidence of harm

Question 2

What does CAGE stand for in screening alcohol dependece?

Answer 2

cut-dpwn; annoyed; guilty; eye-opener

Question 3

What is incentive salience?

Answer 3

attributing want to a rewarding stimulus

Question 4

Which pathway in the brain deals with reward?

Answer 4

mesolimbic pathway

Question 5

What makes up the mesolimbic pathway?

Answer 5

ventral tegmental area–nucleus accumbens–prefrontal cortex

Question 6

What does dopamine release in the mesolimbic pathway lead to?

Answer 6

incentivises behaviour

Question 7

What happens in response to overuse of the reward pathway?

Answer 7

tolerance to reward develops

Question 8

How does tolerance to reward develop?

Answer 8

repeated dopamine release leads to down-regulation of dopamine receptors

Question 9

What are the consequences of tolerance to reward?

Answer 9

threshold for rewards during abstinence is increased; normal experiences dont evoke adequate reward which persist

Question 10

What drives the initial stages of drug taking?

Answer 10

reward- positive reinforment

Question 11

Waht drives the later stages of drug taking?

Answer 11

negative reinforcement- becomes a thirst

Question 12

What is the function of the pre-frontal cortex?

Answer 12

helps intenetion guide behaviour; sets goals, focuses attention; keeps emotions and impulses under control to achieve long term goals

Question 13

How does cortical maturation occur?

Answer 13

in a baack-to-front direction

Question 14

When do the frontal lobe areas mature in relation to limbic systems?

Answer 14

later

Question 15

What are the effects of dopamine release in the PFC?

Answer 15

affects the ability to update information; to select new goals and aibilty to avoid compulsive repetition of a behaviour

Question 16

What is delayed discounting?

Answer 16

a greater reward further away compared to a smaller reward sooner seems smaller due to distance away

Question 17

What parts of the brain are especially important in learned drug associations?

Answer 17

hippocampus; striatum and amygdala- linked to the mesolimbic pathway

Question 18

What is the function of orbito-frontal cortex?

Answer 18

provides internal representations of the saliency of events and assigns values to them- key creator of motivation

Question 19

What gives you a higher genetic risk in terms of receptors to addiction?

Answer 19

low dopamine receptors give higher risk

Question 20

Why does stress motivate drug seeking?

Answer 20

acute stress triggers release of dopamine in nrual reward pathway

Question 21

What is the result of chronic stress in the neural reward pathway?

Answer 21

down-regulation of D receptors reducing sensitivity to normal rewards