Addiction

• Addiction


  Individual takes a substance that eventually becomes complusive with harmful consequences
• Physical dependence

  State of the body after taking a substance which results in withdrawal syndrome When use of substance is stopped
• Psychological dependence 


  Compulsion to continue taking a substance because its use is rewarding
• Tolerance


  A reduction in response to a substance so the individual will take more to get the same effect
• Types of tolerances

  Behavioural tolerance: individual learns through experience to change their behaviour to compensate for the effects of the drug (walking more slowly when drunk)

  Cross-tolerance: when developing tolerance to one substance can reduce sensitivity to another type(needing higher levels of anaesthetic)
• Risk factors

  Any internal or external influence that increases the likelihood that a person may gain an addiction
• Types of risk factors

  Genetic vulnerability: inheriting a vulnerability to dependence

  Stress: people who experience stress may turn to substances as a form of self-medication

  Personality: traits like hostility may increase the risk of addiction

  Family influences: living with family which uses substances or has a good attitude to addiction may increase the likelihood of becoming addicted

  Peers: peer adolescents attitudes towards drugs can be influential
• Genetic vulnerability 


  D2 receptor: dopamine transmission is affected by the number of dopamine receptors. People who have addictions have been found to have an abnormally low amount of D2 receptors. They use drugs to compensate so their low dopamine levels

  Nicotine enzyme (CYP2A6): some people lack a fully functioning enzyme meaning they smoke significantly less than smokers with fully functioning enzymes
• Stress

  Anderson & Teicher (2008) argue early experiences of severe stress can have damaging effects on a young brain which creates a vulnerability to later stress. This can make it more likely that a person will self-medicate with drugs
• Personality

  Most people with APD are more likely to be substance abusers Petry (2002). Robins (1998) argues that APD is a casual risk factor for addiction as they behave impulsively. Therefore it is inevitable that someone with APD will try substances at a young age
• Family influences

  Livingston et al (2010) found that final year high school students who are allowed to drink at home are more likely to drink excessively the next year in college

  Adolescents who believe that their parents have little/no interest in their behaviour are more likely to develop an addiction
• Peers

  O’Connell et al (2009) suggests there’s three elements to peer influence as a risk factors Any for alcohol addiction:

  An at-risk adolescents attitudes are influenced by associating with peers that use alcohol

  These experienced peers provide opportunities for the at-risk individual to use alcohol

  These experienced peers individual overestimates how much their peers are drinking which means they drink more to keep up with the perceived norm
• Withdrawal syndrome

  A set of symptoms that develop when an individual stops using or reduces the amount of the substance they use

  The existence of withdrawal shows a physical dependence has formed for the substance

  There are two phases of withdrawal: acute and prolonged
• Acute withdrawal phase

  Begins within hours of abstaining

  Intense cravings for the substance

  Gradually decrease over a couple of days
• Prolonged withdrawal phase

  Symptoms that can continue for weeks, moths or years

  Becomes highly sensitive to cues associated with the substance

  A reason why relapse is so common
• Genetic vulnerability evaluation (strength)

  Kendler et al (2012) used data from the National Swedish Adoption Study

  They looked at adults who had at least one parent who had an addiction

  These children had a significantly greater risk of developing an addiction themselves

  This supports the role of genetic vulnerability
• Stress evaluation (limitation)

  Many studies show there is a positive correlation between stressful experiences and addiction, but this doesn’t mean that stress is a risk factor

  What matters is the order in which the stress and addiction was developed

  A persons addiction can cause greater stress in their lives because of the negative affect of the lifestyle

  Therefore we cannot conclude that stress is a significant risk factor based on correlational studies alone
• Personality evaluation (strength)

  There is support for the link between addiction and APD

  Several studies show that APD and alcohol dependence are co-morbid

  Bahlmann et al (2002) interviewed 55 alcohol-dependent people, 18 of which also had APD

  For these 18 participants the researchers found that APD developed 4 years before their alcohol-dependency on average

  This suggests that APD is a personality-related risk facor for alcohol addiction
• Family influences evaluation (strength)

  Madras et al (2019) found a strong positive correlation between parents' use of cannabis and their teenage children's use of cannabis

  It may be that adolescents observe their parents and model this behaviour

  They may also infer that their parents approve of drug use generally and go on to use other types of drugs

  This supports the view that parental substance abuse is a potential risk factor for wider addictions in offspring
• Peers evaluation (strength)

  Social norms marketing advertising (SNMA)is and intervention to change mistaken beliefs about how much peers are drinking

  It uses mass media advertising to provide messages and statistics about how much people are really drinking

  Students can get a more accurate picture of how much people are drinking to correct their overestimations

  Identification of risk factors can suggest ways to reduce the influence of such factor
• Explanations for nicotine addiction: brain neurochemistry

  Dani & Heinemann (1996) focused on dopamine in their desensitisation hypothesis of nicotine addiction

  The ACh plays a key role in nervous system activity which means there are ACh receptors in many neurons in the CNS