Reducing addiction : drug therapy
Cards (7)
- Drug therapies for reducing addiction:
- Nicotine addiction: Nicotine replacement therapy, Drug treatments ( varencline & bupropion )
- Gambling addiction : opioid antagonists, antidepressants
- Nicotine replacement therapy:
- Drug therapy for reducing nicotine addiction
- Gradually releases nicotine into the bloodstream at much lower levels than a cigarette & without the other harmful chemicals
- Controls cravings & prevents relapse
- Drug treatments for reducing nicotine addiction:
- Varenicline & bupropion
- Nicotine-free pills that reduce a person’s cravings & help with withdrawal symptoms
- Opioid antagonists for reducing gambling addiction:
- Bind to opiod receptors in the body, blocking them, this prevents the person experiencing the reward response
- Opioid receptors are import at for processing dopamine
- Antidepressants as a drug treatment for gambling addiction:
- SSRIs
- There’s evidence to support serotonin dysfunction in pathological gambling
- Reduce symptoms of depression & anxiety, lessens the urge to gamble
- Low levels of serotonin have been found in people with impaired impulse control
- SSRIs increase serotonin which reduces impulsivity
- Drug therapy for reducing addiction AO3:
- ✅ Support for effectiveness of NRT - meta-analysis of 150 trials that compared NRT with a placebo found NRT was 70% more effective
- ❌ Lack of blinding in NRT studies - patients can feel whether they got placebo or nicotine
- ❌ Negative effects of opioid antagonists - stops brain from releasing dopamine, could cause patients to lose pleasure in other areas
- ❌ Methodological issues in drug therapies for gambling addiction - small sample size, low number of females, no control groups, fail to acknowledge co-morbidity
- Drug therapy for reducing addiction AO3:
- ✅ Support for effectiveness of NRT
- ❌ Lack of blinding in NRT studies
- ❌ Negative effects of opioid antagonists
- ❌ Methodological issues in drug therapies for gambling addiction