Addiction Flashcards
(30 cards)
What are some facts about addiction?
- 1 in 4 Canadians will experience addiction or mental illness during their lifetime (1/10 in a year).
- 2/3 who need care receive none
- affect more people than heart disease – more than cancer, arthritis & diabetes combined.
- Costs Canada $32-billion a year,
- 14% of the net operating revenue of all Canadian Business (33% of short-term disability claims).
What are some general patterns of drug use?
- 79% of general population drink, 14% use cannabis. (CAS 2004)
- 18% exceed drinking guidelines.
- 14% report hazardous drinking.
- Majority of acute problems are the result of average drinkers who drink too much on single drinking occasions. (Rehm 2003)
- Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs cost Canadians over $18 billion annually. (Single, 1996)
What are some patterns of drug use in teens and young adults?
- Over 90% of the alcohol consumed by males aged 15 to 24 years and over 85% consumed by young females exceeded Canadian guidelines. (Stockwell 2005)
- Close to 60% of those between 15 and 24 have used cannabis at least once; 38% used cannabis in the past year. (CAS 2004)
- Over 80% of Grade 12 students drink and almost half of these students report hazardous drinking. (Adlaf 2005)
- Daily cannabis use has increased significantly and 1 in 5 students report driving after using cannabis. (Adlaf 2005)
- Although smoking has gone down, 1 in 7 students still smoke. (Adlaf 2005)
What is substance abuse?
Recurrent use leads to failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school, or home
Recurrent use in situations which are physically hazardous
Recurrent substance-related legal problems
Continued use despite persistent physical, social, occupational, or psychological problems
What is Physical Dependence Tolerance in addiction?
- the need for an increased amount of a given drug to achieve intoxication or desired effect
- or the reduction of a drug’s effect with continued use of the same dose over time
What is Physical Dependence Withdrawal in addiction?
- Occurs when a drug is abruptly removed, or dose is significantly decreased
- Cluster of symptoms often accompanied by directly overt physical signs
What happens when unpleasantness of withdrawal is severe in addiction?
Unpleasantness of withdrawal may be so severe that the individual fearing it may use drug again just to avoid or relieve symptoms
What is Psychological Dependence?
- a state in which stopping or abruptly reducing the dose of a drug produces non-physical symptoms
- characterized by emotional and mental preoccupation with the drug’s effects and a persistent craving for the drug
What is harm in addiction?
Central concept in understanding both addiction and substance abuse
What are the types of harms?
- Physical
- Psychological
- Social (e.g., family, friends, job, financial, legal system)
- Spiritual
What are the components of all addictions?
- Preoccupation with substance
- Increased use of substance beyond expected
- Inability to control use
- Withdrawal symptoms
- Signs of tolerance
- Restricted activities
- Impaired functions
- Harmful or hazardous use
Why do people use drugs?
- Fun/enhance pleasurable activities/intensify feelings
- Experiment, explore new experiences
- Unwind, cope with stress
- Escape reality, numb feelings
- Deal with emotional pain or discomfort
- Respond to social pressure or norms
- Make social contact easier
- Enhance artistic creativity
- Spiritual or meditative pursuits
- Self-medicate for anxiety, depression, cognitive
dysfunction
what are the indications of physical dependence in addiction?
tolerance and withdrawal
What is the Moral model in addiction?
Importance of values
- Addiction is the result of choices from a flawed
character (think they are weak)
- Healing through higher values
What are the implications for treatment for the Moral model in addiction?
- The temperance movement (cannot give drugs cause the weak will become addicts)
- The War on Drugs
What are the pros and cons of the Moral model in addiction?
Pros
- Empowering
- Appeals to those with a world view based on
right/wrong
Cons
- Judgmental
- Simplifies the complex nature of addiction
What are the implications for treatment for the Disease model in addiction?
- 12 Step Programs (can be an effective tool but understanding flawed)
- Drug Interventions
What is the Disease Model in addiction?
Addiction as switch in brain
- Addiction is attributed to genetics or physical damage
- Addiction is a chronic disease, can be treated, not
cured
- Pervasive and long lasting changes in host of
neurochemical systems (continues for rest of life)
What are the pros and cons of the Disease model in addiction?
Pros
- Indignation replaced with pity
Cons
- Encourages simple minded polices
What is the Social Model in addiction?
Socialization in milieu that encouraged such use
- Focuses on environment
- Family, peer, and culture influences
What are the implications for treatment for the Social model in addiction?
- Emphasizes communal efforts to aid the addict
- New peers, new activities, new locales
- Importance of positive role models; Recovery lead by
recovered addicts
What are the pros and cons of the Social model in addiction?
Pros
- Promotes responsibility for some societal norms
- Identifies at-risk populations
Cons
- Cultural stereotypes
- Blame placed on culture
Are the reasons individuals give for drug and alcohol use long-lasting?
- Reasons they give for why individuals use drugs is only there initially but not in long run
- usually reason why they tried
What is the Psychological Model in addiction?
Emotional regulation
- Psychological Stress
- Way of avoiding aversive emotions and approaching positive ones
- Addiction is the result of an inability to cope
- Desire is modeled on inaccurate representation of substance’s effects
- Addictive personality (Neuroticism, Impulsivity, Extraversion, Deviance)
