Brain Structure and Function Associated with Refraining from Drugs

Further, circumstances such as economical, health, or personal issues resulting in a person’s choice to take drugs ironically can be the same reasons for them to either change their pattern, stop taking drugs, or get help versus the unavoidable, involuntary effect of a diseased brain. Additionally, those that choose to continue being addicted over a long period of time illustrates that by making that choice they are not helpless compared to a person who has a chronic disease. “Rather than being the inevitable, involuntary product of a diseased brain, these actions represent the essence of voluntariness. The addict’s behavior can be modified by knowledge of the consequences. Involuntary behavior cannot (Satel, Goodwin, 1998, pg. 5).

Relapses and drug taking are both heavily influenced by similar factors such as the drugs neurochemistry, the user’s history, environment, and dose of the pharmacokinetics. After a period of abstinence or non-use the drugs reinstating is more often an initiation of more than one factor, namely; re-exposure to drug, stress, cues in the environment, priming of the drug to user. In the user’s mind, neurochemical responses are commonly induced through these factors, in that they create a craving by mimicking the drug and this in turn prevents reinstatement and desire to use the drug (McGovern, Xie, Segal, Siembab, & Drake, 2006).

It is believed that certain individuals are predisposed or vulnerable to addiction based on biological, psychological and social influences. The euphoric high produced by many addictive substances is the result of overstimulation of the “pleasure center” of the brain. This is the same area that controls emotions, fear, self-control and overall feelings of wellness. The presence of these foreign chemicals creates a response that the brain will crave as soon as it fades. The brain’s chemistry works against its own health, as it rewires its decision making faculties around the primary goal of finding and taking more of the drug” (1). Many people mistakenly believe that psychological addiction is somehow less serious or real than physical addiction. The psychological aspects of addiction are much more challenging to repair and recover from than the physical addiction. Psychological addiction can last for years or even a lifetime.

This research paper will evaluate the biological aspects of addictive substance or behavior and how it affects the brain and organs. Biological aspects include dopamine levels that are replaced in the brain due to the reward system being overtaken and the absorption rate of the drug once it is ingested will be discussed. The biological aspects are extensive and permanent if the individual does not get the help they need. Furthermore the clinical issues of addictive substance or behavior will be discussed along with medical treatments and ethical issues. This includes treatments such as counseling

The definition provided above is accessible and easy to understand; however, it initiates false beliefs among individuals because it fails to acknowledge that drug addiction is a mental health problem. Moreover, when words such as, “dependence”, “control” and “craving” are used to define drug addiction, it leaves an impression to the reader that addicts are indeed “people who cannot control their impulses.” Consequently, when we fail to recognize that drug addiction is a mental health problem, our focus is diverted towards the physical aspect of drug addiction. This could cause the belief among individuals that drugs alone cause the addiction. It is essential to acknowledge that there are chemical hooks in drugs; however, individuals need to understand that drugs alone do not cause the addiction. We need to identify and distinguish the “root cause” of addiction and ask ourselves: what caused the individual to take the drug in the first place?

When activated at normal levels, this system rewards our natural behaviors. Overstimulating the system with drugs, however, produces euphoric effects, which strongly reinforce the behavior of drug use—teaching the user to repeat it. (1)

Should the person experiencing pleasure repeat the behavior to re-experience the pleasure, reinforcement sets in—that is, the more you do it, the more you want to do it. It’s analogous to a roller coaster ride at an amusement park. Those who enjoy the ride will want to repeat the ride over and over for the thrill of it produces. But for opioids, the person is digging a deep hole. As the person uses more of the opioid, there is a greater likelihood that the next phase, tolerance, will develop. Reinforcement is the second critical piece of the Addiction Jigsaw Puzzle.

Addiction is formed by an initial choice fueled by external beguiling factors. From the time we are born, we know absolutely nothing, our minds are a blank slate. In fact, according to Jean Piaget’s cognitive stages of development, the mind does not begin to think abstractly from concrete ideas or reason until the final stage (formal operational), which lasts all the from age twelve and on. Because of this, we can deduce that at any age in our development, we are susceptible to external factors influencing our behavior. With that being said, a person’s decision to participate in the use of any substance is influenced by much more than their knowledge that it is “wrong”. Peer pressure, stress, curiosity or even medical practices can ignite the choice to abuse substances. The majority of addictions that begin in the pre-teen and teenage years stem from their exposure to drugs and alcohol in the media, many even claim that

“The most intuitive explanation for addiction is the traditional view that drugs are taken first because they are pleasant, but with repeated drug use homeostatic neuroadaptations lead to tolerance and dependence, such that unpleasant withdrawal symptoms ensue upon the cessation of use. Compulsive drug taking is maintained, by this view, to avoid unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.” (2002, p. 27)

Drug seeking behaviors comes from medical patients who abuse prescription drugs. They tend to visit physician and exert escalated pressure to obtain prescription drugs. Other drugs such as cocaine may disrupt the brain function through three way alike snorting, smoking, and injecting cocaine is how it inter the blood stream and all area of the brain. However, its euphoric effects are mediated in certain areas. For instance, prescription drugs are oral alike marijuana, Acetaminophen, Adderall, Xanax, Codeine, Oxycodone, Ibuprofen 800 these prescription reaches or become associated with the reward pathway. Meanwhile that is why each prescribed drug is provided with a certain dosages, possible drug interactions, side effects, and contraindications

Addiction is like all behaviours “the business of the brain”. Addictions are compulsive physical and psychological needs from habit-forming sustenances like nicotine, alcohol, and drugs. Being occupied with or involved in such activities, leads a person who uses them again and again to become tolerant and dependent eventually experiencing withdrawal. (Molintas, 2006).

The first is that the person’s own attitude to the behavior. The second would be the pressure towards the individual to perform that behavior. The third is the amount of control the person believes they have with the behavior (McMillan & Conner, 2002). For the study, all the participants were undergraduates that were randomly selected in 30 different departments. There were several categories that were focused on these factors in the questionnaire. The two most important were the individual’s “intentions” on using one of the six drugs in the study in the next six months and the history of drug “behavior” use in the past six months (McMillan & Conner,

Robinson and Berridge postulate that repeated exposure to drugs of abuse, persistently changes the brain circuits involved in attributing incentive salience. In accordance with that theory are several studies that have demonstrated that exposure to certain drugs such as cocaine enhances the motivation to seek or self-administer these drugs in the future (Horger, Shelton & Schenk, 1990; Deroche, LeMoal & Piazza, 1999). For a detailed discussion of this theory please refer to Robinson and Berridge (1993;

(2006) further explain that addictive behavior is motivated by the expectancy of the drug. Essentially, when an addict is exposed to cues previously paired with drug-use, for example drug paraphernalia or contexts in which drugs were taken; they elicit responses such as drug-seeking behavior and withdrawal symptoms that result in drug abuse. Hogarth & Dickinson (2007) further demonstrate that depending on the context, instrumental drug-seeking behavior is goal-directed or habitual (Hogarth, Dickinson, 2007). They conclude that drug seeking is the result of expectancy and is goal-directed; however they were unclear of the factors that contribute this behavior to either goal-directed or habitual learning processes.

Most of the current thought regarding drug abuse and drug addiction is controlled by the “hijacked brain” concept, which states that a user’s brain is altered by a drug at exposure and can eventually lead to addiction. Such theories are only just that: theories, with little to no clinical evidence to support their claim. On the other hand, some clinicians believe that addicts use drugs in a continuing cycle of self regulation. The general model of addiction that supports how people use substances in a self-regulatory manner, the self-medication hypothesis, concludes that a person’s choice of substance is directly correlated to an underlying sign of distress or emotion they are trying to manage.