Substance Use and Misuse

Question 1

What are the Rates of Smoking in Australia? How did it change over time?

Answer 1

• 2007 still 20% smoking
  
  • astonishing whenthinking how damaging it is
• 1945 < 70% of men were smoking
  
  • steep decline for men!!

Question 2

In Australia:
♦ How many death caused by Smoking?

♦ What are the Effects of Smoking?

Answer 2

♦ Roughly 90’000

♦ Effects

• Cancer (lung, throat, …)*
• CHD*
• Lowered Life Expectancy*
• Stinks*

Social Stigma
_{(disgust rate bit lower than drug addicts, but higher than obesity, homeless,)}

Question 3

Why Do People Smoke?

Answer 3

♦ Social Factors

♦ Reinforcement

♦ Weight Control

♦ Cognition / Beliefs

♦ Cues and Cravings

♦ Nicotine Dependence

Question 4

How Do Social Factors Influence Smoking Behaviour?

Answer 4

positively: normative pressure & friends that smoke
negatively: direct pressure not to smoke
* + in media:*
* correlative data: the more movies you have seen, in which the actors smoke, the higher the chance you smoke*

Question 5

Name three methods used to help people quit smoking and their success rate

Answer 5

• Hypnosis
• Aversion Therapy
• scheduled smoking
• > long-termsuccess rate only 25%

Question 6

Name one Method to prevent Smoking successfully

Answer 6

Implementation Intentions

-> when I experience peer pressure I will… to prevent smoking

Question 7

What are the Standards of Safe Drinking

Answer 7

♦ 21 drinks/ week for a man

♦ 14 drinks / week for a woman

Question 8

Effects of Alcohol (shorterm, continued use, longterm)

Answer 8

♦ Inital: feel good, outgoing, reduced inhibition

♦ Continued:
Alcohol Myopia
Depressant (judgement, concentration, impaired motor coord).

♦ Longterm: affects all organs, lead to death

Question 9

Define Alcohol Myopia

Answer 9

The alcohol myopia model posits that rather than disinhibit, alcohol produces a myopia effect that causes users to pay more attention to salient environmental cues and less attention to less salient cues.

Therefore, alcohol’s myopic effects cause intoxicated people to respond almost exclusively to their immediate environment. This “nearsightedness” limits their ability to consider future consequences of their actions as well as regulate their reactive impulses.

Question 10

What are the economic costs of Alcohol in Australia?

Answer 10

36 billion / y

!! -> 70’000 Australians are the target of alcohol-related assaults

Question 11

Why Do People Drink Alcohol?

Answer 11

>> Social Factors: peer pressure, expectancies, media influences

>> Reinforcement

>> Addiction

Question 12

How is Alcohol Abuse Treated?

Answer 12

¡ spontaneous remission: less than 20% of problem drinkers

¡ Detoxification programmes

¡ Pharmalogical Treatments
→ Anatabuse (aversion therapy)
→ Naltrexone (takes away award of drinking)

→ psychological or supportive treatment

Furthermore: Implementation Intentions help!

Question 13

Textbook:

Define Physical Dependence

Answer 13

body has adjusted to a substance and incorporated it into the normal functioning of the body’s tissue. 2 Characteristics:

1. Tolerance
2. Withdrawal

Question 14

Textbook:

Define Psychological Dependence

Answer 14

individuals feel compelled to use a substance for the effect it produces.

Question 15

Textbook:

Definition Substance Use Disorder

Answer 15

Substance Use

+

1 or 2 of the following symptoms:

• • tolerance
• craving
• failing to fulfill important obligations
• putting oneself or others at risk
• having substance-related legal difficulties*

-

Question 16

Textbook:

What is Reinforcement?

Answer 16

Positive Reinforcement:
consequence of use is pleasant and therefore one wants more or reuse it

Negative Reinforcement:
reducing or removing aversive circumstances (like pain or unpleasant feelings).

→ both produce a wanted state

Question 17

Substance-Related Cues:

Answer 17

Classical conditioning: a conditioned stimulus (smell of cigarette smoke) elicit a response through association with an unconditioned stimulus, like the buzz feeling of a cigarette.

As a result: Craving and Attention

• (for me: poker -> smoking)*
• Other Theories:*
• • withdrawal symptoms: body prepares for substance, which don’t come
• incentive-sensitization theory: dopamine enhances the salience of stimuli associated with substance use so that they become increasingly powerful in directing behabior*