addiction

Question 1

what are girffiths 6 steps to addiction

Answer 1

Griffiths 6 steps to addiction

1. Salience (most important thing in persons life)
2. Mood modification (affects their mood)
3. Tolerance (need to produce more of the drug to have the same effect)
4. Withdrawal symptons physical or psychological
5. Conflict with self and others
6. Relapse (always remain tempted)

Question 2

what is DSM and 3 symptoms that someone with addiction may face

Answer 2

DSM- diagnostic and statistical manuel of mental illness, contains 10 categories of substance that can cause addiction such as alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and stimulants
DSM states that substance addiction ranges from mild to sever mild 2-3 symptons and sever 6+ symptoms

3 DSM symptoms
• The individual make take substance in large amounts over a long period of time than was originally intended
• Craving is manifested by an intense urge for the drug that can occur at any time
• Withdrawal symptoms when try to abstain from taking the drug is present

Question 3

what is the first biological explanation for addiction

Answer 3

dopamine

The reward centre in your brain releases dopamine in response to pleasurable experiences. This is called the mesolimbic pathway. Addictive behaviour triggers dopamine which leads to a sense of pleasures In the NUCLEUS ACCUMBERS, then the mesabolic pathway is activated

Question 4

what did jousta et al and dailey et al say about addiciton (seperate studies)

Answer 4

Jousta et al- participants were given a gambling task to complete they found that dopamine levels were increased.

Dailey et al- used impulsive and non impulsive rats, the more impulsive rats had fewer dopamine receptors. These rats were given opportunity to self administrate cocoaine. Helps for cause and effect research, problems- ethics, observational, generalisation, lab exp

Question 5

what is neuro adaption

Answer 5

Neuroadaption: This is where with continue use of a drug or behaviour the brain will start to adapt and will need more to satisfy the same effect. The brain will try and minimise the effect of the drug to get normal function

Question 6

what are the problems for dopamine with an explanation for addiction

Answer 6

Problems with dopamine as an explanation for addiction-

1. Dopamine doesn’t just perform one function
2. Many of the studies to support dopamine were done in lab environments (lack ecological validity)
3. Ignores individual differences
4. Ethical questions

Question 7

what is tolerance

Answer 7

What is tolerance?
When a drug is taken repeatadley a higher dose is needed in order to produce the same effect. D2 receptors are receptors that dopamine attach to.

Question 8

what did volkow say about dopamine

Answer 8

VOLKOW- found that there was a reduction in the release of dopamine in cocoaine users. He states that the changes aswell as occurring in the reward pathway, also happen in the frontal cortex, these changes to the frontal cortex can alter attention processes so addicts pay MORE attention to stimui associated with their addiction

How to measure dopamine: blood tests

Question 9

what is the 2nd biological explanation for addiction

Answer 9

2nd biological explanation for addiction: GENES- genetic explanation

Question 10

what is neurotiscm

Answer 10

people who have high neurotism are prone to depression therefore would be more prone to addiction as a coping effect.

Question 11

what is the ADH and ALDH gene

Answer 11

ADH AND ALDH gene: these genes determine how the body process alcohol e.g if you have these genes you may be less likely to have addiction because it causes unpleasant effects to alcohol (hot flushes)

Question 12

what is the DRD2 gene

Answer 12

DRD2 gene: the a1 varient of this gene means someone who has this gene has less dopamine receptors, this has been linked with a higher predisposition to alchoholism

Question 13

what did argwal and lynskey research about genes and addiction

Answer 13

Agrawal and Lynskey: conducted a review study on twin studies, they found that genetic influence of addiction ranged 30-70%. They highlighted the importance of both genes and environment , this study supports the importance of environment and the lack of specifically knowing which genes mechanically cause addiction

Question 14

what are the 3 problems with genes as an explantion for addiction

Answer 14

3 problems with genes as an explanation for addiction:

1. Addiciton cant be purely genetic, there must be environmental factors (Agrawal and Lynskey)
2. There is not a single gene which explains addiction
3. There are methodical problems with twin and adoption studies