 |
Epidemiology
Biological factors are that of cellular alteration. Change at the cellular level can lead to tolerance, dependence and eventually create withdrawal symptoms if the cellular affecting substance is no longer used. The National Institute of Drug Abuse provides extensive information on physiological aspects of addiction.
Behavioral or environmental process of addiction holds that a person goes through specific behavioral stages (Table 4). According to Nakken, (1996) 7 during Stages 1 and 2 it is possible for the individual to abstain from use of the drug. Once the individual enters Stage 3, it is impossible for the substance-using individual to choose abstinence without intervention, treatment, and long-term after care.
A Brain Disease: Most recent research on addiction has focused on the brain's drug reward system. Pleasure is a powerful reinforcer of behavior. The brain's pleasure center, the ventral tegmental area (VTA), is part of the "survival center" of our brain. Although it is not the only brain system involved in reward, the ventral tegmental system can be activated by both exogenous and endogenous stimuli. This system also offers natural rewards associated with eating, sexual and maternal behavior. Once activated, brain reward systems produce a range of mood changes from slightly elevated to euphoric.
Addictive drugs activate the VTA's pleasure circuit in powerful way, creating in the individual a strong desire to repeat the behavior (drug taking). This continued use of psychoactive drugs might eventually alter neurons and their normal functions forever. This alteration causes the user to be less sensitive to "normal activators" of the reward system (e.g.., sex and eating) and creates in the individual a drug-seeking behavior.
Figure 3, (NIDA, 2006) 6
Continue on to
|
|
Neuron
