Addiction biological Flashcards
(20 cards)
What is the hero explanation?
Dopamine
What is the sidekick explanaton?
Genes
Who created the 6 criteria for addiction and what are they?
Mark Griffiths
-salience
-mood modification
-tolerance
-conflict
-relapse
-withdrawals
What does salience mean?
The activity becomes the most important thing in the addicts life
What is mood modification?
Addicts have a temporary high causing them to need to engage in the activity to feel normal levels of happiness
what’s meant by tolerance?
They will need more and more of the drug to give them the same high
What are withdrawals?
If the behaviour is stopped they will have uncomfortable side effects like irritability or nausea
What’s conflict?
Addicts may experience conflict within their relationships because of their addiction as it is now more important than them
What’s relapse?
They will have a strong desire to go back after quitting even after long periods of abstinence
what does the dopamine explanation suggest?
addictive behaviours and substances trigger the release of dopamine into the mesolimbic pathway which creates a link between the drug or activity and pleasure as its responsible for the sensation of reward
what is meant by down regulation?
continued exposure to alcohol or drugs results in reduction of activity in the positive reward circuits in the brain meaning the dopamine receptors become less sensitive to the effects with creates withdrawal symptoms
why is the risk of relapse heightened in addicts?
the frontal cortex has become less effective at decision making
what is one strength of the dopamine explanation?
It has practical applications, Botswick and Bucci describe treatment of a young male patient who was addicted to sex and found that after he was treated with naltrexone which successfully blocked the dopamine release, his compulsion plummeted
What’s a second strength of the dopamine explanation?
Volkow et al gave Ritalin which lifts dopamine, to a group of adult volunteers, some of them loved the way it made them feel and others not so much, bran scans showed that the ones who enjoyed it had less dopamine receptors which shows that some people are particularly vulnerable to addiction.
What’s a weakness of the dopamine explanation?
Raised dopamine levels may not apply to all addictions. Stokes et al found no significant increase. of dopamine in volunteers taking cannabis.
What’s a second weakness of the dopamine explanation ?
Too simplistic, ignores that dopamine has other functions. Bell says that dopamine is the “Kim kardashian” of neurotransmitters suggesting that it has become fashionable for causing a range of problems when Lierzon found increased activation in the mesolimbic pathway in war veterans experiencing PTSD when reminded of battle through sounds.
What does the Genes explanation suggest?
Addiction may come down to genes passed down. Goldman concluded that heritability for addictions ranged from +0.39 for hallucinogens and +0.72 for cocaine.
What’s the diathesis stress model?
Suggests that saying addiction only comes down to genes is too simplisitc and we should consider how genes and ones environment can interact to cause addiction.
What is a strength of the genes explanation?
Supportive evidence, Kendler and
Prescott interviewed twins and found that whether a person engaged in cocaine use was down to environmental factors but whether they became addicted was more down to genetic factors. Concordance rate for cocaine initiation was 54% in MZ twins and 42% in DZ twins, however for dependence on cocaine it was 35% and 0%. This suggests that genetics do play a role in addiction.
What is a weakness of the genes explanation?
Issues with one of its most prominent proposals, Comings et al found that the A1 variant was also found in people with disorders such as autism and Tourettes almost as often as in alcoholics. We should reconsider whether the dopamine receptor works as a reward gene since people with autism and Tourettes aren’t particularly pleasure seeking.
