Week Four - Addictive Behaviours Flashcards
When can a drug produce dependence?
When dependence is defined as the manifestation of a withdrawal syndrome upon cessation of drug use.
Define addiction
A current pattern of maladaptive behaviour that includes drug seeking despite negative consequences ad very often, relapse
What term does the DSM 5 use to define addiction disorders
Substance use disorders
What are the 10 classes of drugs in the DSM 5?
Alcohol Caffeine Cannabis Hallucinogens Inhalants Opioids Sedatives Hypnotics Stimulants (e.g., meth, coke) Tobacco
How many criteria span substance use disorders?
11 - not all need to be met
What is the range of criteria scale for SUD?
2-3 = mild 4-5 = moderate 6+ = severe
What are the 3 characteristics of drug addiction?
Relapsing disorder characterised by:
- compulsion to seek and take the drug
- loss of control in limiting intake
- emergence of negative emotional state (e.g., anxiety) when access to drug is prevented
What is one of the major objectives of current research regarding drug use?
To understand the psychological and neural mechanisms that mediate the transition from occasional, controlled drug use, to the loss of behavioural control that results in chronic addiction
Drug addiction has aspects of what 2 disorders?
Impulse control and compulsive disorders
How are impulse control disorders characterised?
By an increasing sense of tension or arousal before committing an impulsive act - there is pleasure or relief at the time of committing and there may/may not be regret or guilt following the act
How are compulsive disorders characterised?
By anxiety and stress (with recurrent thoughts or obsessions) followed by compulsive repetitive behaviour and relief from the stress by performing compulsive behaviour
Explain positive and negative reinforcement in relation to impulse control and compulsion disorders
The search for PR (pleasure) is more associated with impulse control disorders whereas NR (relief of stress/anxiety) is more closely related to compulsive disorders
Explain the transition from impulse to compulsion disorder
Individuals transit from an impulsive disorder to a compulsive disorder as there is a shift rom PR driving the behaviour to NR driving the behaviour. Becomes less about the positive associations and more toward relieving the negative
Explain the Incentive Sensitisation Theory
Often when a drug is administered repeatedly, its effects will not remain constant
(tolerance: a decrease in the effectiveness of a drug that is administered repeatedly)
(sensitisation: an increase in the effectiveness of a drug that is administered repeatedly)
When first used, a drug produces a moderate amount of wanting and liking. With repeated use, tolerance for liking develops and so liking decreases. The wanting mediatior becomes sensitised and so wanting the drug increases
Explain the allostasis and NR theory
The initial acute effect of the drug is believed to be opposed or counteracted by the homeostatic changes in the system that mediate the primary drug effects
What is the allostatic view?
The process of achieving stability through change
Explain the addiction as a habit theory?
Proposes addiction is the result o a complex interaction of the physiological effects of drugs on brain areas associated with motivation and emotion, combined with learning about the relationship between drugs, drug-related cues and drug outcomes.
Classical Conditioning: Ads pair products with images that create a positive emotional response (responses and drug craving can be conditioned)
- learning to associate the stimulus with the reinforcing outcomes
Instrumental Conditioning: Organisms behaviour produces the stimulus. behaviour occurs because if the consequences it produces.
- We learn to associate the response and the outcome (goal-directed behaviour)
What is Habit Learning?
The stimulus beginning to elicit the response directly, whereby the response occurs relatively automatically, without much mental processing of the relation between the action and the outcomes
The transit from response-outcome to habit-like behaviour is mediated by what brain regions?
The transit is mediated by information from the ventral striatum to the dorsal striatum
Why does compulsive drug-taking still persist despite negative consequences?
Because there is development of a habit whereby we are willing to tolerate the consequences
What personality characteristics create vulnerability to addiction?
disinhibition novelty and sensation seeking difficult temperament anxiety phenotype impulsiveness
How do developmental factors contribute to drug addiction vulnerability?
Strong evidence that adolescent exposure to alcohol, tobacco, or drugs of abuse leads to significant vulnerability to developing problems during adulthood
initiation begins with legal drugs and illicit happens later in life
What percentage to genes contribute to drug addiction ?
40%
What is reduced in the brains of subjects addicted to cocaine, meth, alcohol, obese people etc
dopamine receptor availability
What drug causes the most ill health and premature death?
Tobacco
Why has tobacco use decreased?
Mainly due to younger gens not taking up smoking
What is the most commonly used illicit drug?
Cannabis
What are the 4 stages of substance abuse?
1) Initiation - beliefs (sus, seriousness, cost, benefits) & social factors (parent behaviour, peer pressure)
2) Maintenance
3) Cessation
4) Relapse (coping, expectancies)
What are common reasons that predict smoking initiation and maintenance?
Fun and pleasure
calming nerves
parental smoking
peer pressure
What factors contribute to relapse?
Stress
conditioned cues
exposure to drug
What treatments are available for relapse?
CBT
counselling
pharmacological
However not very effective
The learning hypothesis of addiction postulates that addiction involves what?
A transit from response-outcome (instrumental) to habit-like (stimulus-response) behaviour
What 5 things make us vulnerable to addiction?
heterogenous phenotype personality traits COMORBID PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATIONS developmental factors genetic factors
