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Classifying Drug Abuse as a Disease
The economic impact of drug addiction costs the United States economy over a half trillion dollars each year. Even more troublesome is that adolescents whose minds are still developing are ingesting drugs and developing addictions early in life (Psych...). In Volkow and associates paper “The Neural Substrates of Addiction." these researchers believe that drug addiction is a disease of the brain. Over the course of their research three values came to light that can predict the likelihood of drug addiction. These values are: vulnerability (exposure to drugs of abuse), motivational shift (the desire in people to replicate pleasurable experiences), and aberrant learning (the brain adapts to drug use). Another discovery from the research was that drug abuse reduces the pleasure centers that fire when food and sex are present in the environment. Drugs like amphetamines and cocaine shift the neurons and dendrites responsible for motivation, reward, and judgement. This allows for more neurons and dendrites to become available for future applications of dopamine producing drugs. This may be why drug-using individuals do not seek out natural reinforcers like food and sex while under the influence of these drugs. Various parts of the brain like; the orbitofrontal cortex (responsible for drive), striatum, thalamus and insula (memory) can experience a shift as drug use becomes more problematic. One of the reasons that drug users relapse after a long period of abstinence is that their minds are under the influence of classical conditioning and when drug associating cues are present in the environment they habitually respond to old drug taking behaviours. Drugs that stimulate dopamine receptors receive priority channelling down reward pathways. The user begins to associate pleasure with the drug rather than other natural pleasure inducing activities. It is common for long-term drug users to produce less dopamine in the brain as the drug acts as a dopamine replacement and reinforcer. As the brain adapts to drug use it becomes more and more difficult for users to exert "free will." Pleasure equals drug stimulus. To discontinue the use of drugs at this point would require a substitute until dopamine production could be brought up to normal levels in the patient. Therefore, drug addiction can be shown to be a chronic disease much like alcoholism. Drug treatment must involve four goals; to decrease the reward value of the drug of choice, weaken conditioned memories of the drug, increase the quality in value of non-drug re-inforcers, and prevent early onset of adolescent drug use. These goals have been successful in the treatment of other psychiatric illnesses including phobias and depression. A combination of medications that work with behavioural therapies are best for treating those will drug addictions. Sources Volkow, Vora. "The Neural Substrates of Addiction." Psychiatric Times. 13 Nov. 2007. 24 Sep. 2008 http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/55136
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Contributor's Note
Originally published here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1061858/classifying_drug_abuse_as_a_disease.html?cat=70
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http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/55136
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A healthy brain under a Positron Emission Tomography scan.
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