Opioid Addiction Develops And Perpetuates From A Carefully Arranged Interplay Of Six Factors

Addiction is a disease, and should be recognized as such. The use of taboo substances has been proven by countless studies and basic observation that the “happy hormones” released during use are similar, if not often identical, to the hormones released when we eat, drink, or relieve primal urges. This makes it easy for our brains to develop a “craving trigger” for these drugs, similar to a rumbling stomach when you are hungry. A mental

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)

McCoy K.’s article Opioid Addiction starts off by explaining what opioids are and its different forms. Then explaining how these medications are extremely addictive and how it causes the brain to crave the drug. She then goes over causes of addiction, risk factors and the symptoms that a person who addicted to opioids will have. Lastly, she goes over extensively on psychological treatment given to an individual who is suffering from opioid addiction, including counseling and support, treatment for other psychological conditions (such as depression, or any other mental disorders they may have), and behavioral therapy headed by a trained psychologist.

Opioids (including natural and synthetic) work by binding to opioid receptors in the CNS sending inaccurate signals to the brain about the intensity of pain being experienced, which results in a sedating feeling. Opioids affect how brain feels pleasure. In the event of consuming opioids while not experiencing pain, a person would experience elation, intense joy and comfort. Both aforementioned feelings act as positive reinforcement of opioids. The bodily response of using opioids weakens after a while of use, and the user starts to build up a tolerance. The continual usage of opioids changes how the brain works, where the brain learns to crave opioids when opioids are not available to maintain a ‘normal’ stable state. The CNS starts to send

Patients will find themselves developing dependence on the drug which leads to a long-term abuse and death. However, there is a reversible drug that detach the opioid ligand from the opioid receptors undoing the narcotics effects. That drug is Naloxone.

Addiction is disease defined by the compulsive acts an addict will demonstrate to obtain a drug so they can achieve the “high” they need. An opioid addict is chasing the feeling of euphoria and well-being that μ receptors

Addiction is happening due to the addictive property of the drug, opiates attach to the body’s receptors that reduce the perception of pain. Although, the addiction must start somewhere, and it typically begins with a prescription written by a doctor. Over prescription and greedy drug companies are believed

According to Hanson, Venturelli, and Fleckenstein (2015) opioids are described as the “nation’s fastest-growing drug problem” (p. 276) and are also known as narcotics. Opioids originated from the opium poppy and have been chemically altered throughout the years in order to create more potent drugs such as hydrocodone (e.g., Vicodin), oxycodone (e.g., OxyContin, Percocet), morphine (e.g., Kadian, Avinza), and codeine. Known for analgesic properties, opioids are seen to be the most commonly used drugs among clinicians. Although these narcotics are legally prescribed to patients, there are many, even adolescents, that not only abuse prescribed narcotics, but also abuse another form of opioid, heroin. In adolescence, the structures of the brain are not fully developed and are therefore more likely to acquire severe consequences for abusing opioids. There are many ways to use and administer narcotics, but misusing opioids may lead to signs and symptoms of drug abuse, annoying side effects, dependency, abuse, and in worse case situations, death.

Opiate-tolerant patients may take a particular drug more frequently or in higher doses than prescribed to achieve pain relief. Both of these scenarios can lead to severe side effects, dependence, addiction or death.

The biggest influences behind Oxycontin abuse include the relative ease at which it can be acquired and its powerful pain eliminating abilities. Oxycontin

The Cognitive Behavioral View suggests that operant conditioning may play a big role in addiction because the high produced by the substance, is what they continually seek, so they do it over and over, forming an addiction. Then, the more they abuse the substance, a tolerance occurs and they must use more and more to feel the high. The Cognitive Behavioral View also believes that those who abuse substances do it in an attempt to self-medicate when they feel tense. This is done possibly because they have not learned the correct way to de-stress without the mean of

Long-term opiate use can also lead to tolerance. That is why it is common for people who use opiates to increase their dosage in order to experience the same effects. People who are addicted to opiates may also go to extreme measures to obtain the drug, such as stealing and doctor shopping.

“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)

With heroin being such a highly addictive drug, users are often hooked after one use. With continued use, the user will begin to develop some form of tolerance to the drug. This drug tolerance can be demonstrated in  two ways; one, a regular dose of a drug has less effect than it did before; two, a greater dose of the drug is needed in order to produce the effect it did before. (citation) There are two types of tolerances: metabolic and functional. Metabolic tolerance results from changes that reduces the amount of drug getting to the action site. Functional tolerance results from changes that reduce the effectiveness of the action site.(citation)  Such problems could include fewer receptors for the opiate to bind onto and/or a decreased

“The overstimulation of this reward system, which normally responds to natural behaviors linked to survival (eating, spending time with loved ones, etc.), produces euphoric effects in response to psychoactive drugs. This reaction sets in motion a reinforcing pattern that “teaches” people to repeat the rewarding behavior of abusing drugs ”(“Understanding Drug Abuse). Using addictive drugs floods the limbic brain with dopamine, taking it up to as much as five or ten times the normal level. A person with elevated dopamine levels now has a brain that begins to associate the substance with an outside neurochemical reward (“Your Brain on Drugs”). As a person continues to abuse drugs, the brain adapts to the overwhelming surges in dopamine by producing less dopamine or by reducing the number of dopamine receptors in the reward circuit. The result is a lessening of dopamine’s impact on the reward circuit, which reduces the abuser’s ability to enjoy the drugs, as well as the events in life that previously brought pleasure. The decrease in normal dopamine levels encourages the addict to keep abusing drugs in an attempt to bring the dopamine function back to normal, except now larger amounts of the drug are required to achieve the same dopamine high, an effect known as tolerance (“Understanding Drug Abuse ). That is what leads to the state of addiction, which leaves the person in a cycle of craving, using, withdrawal, and relapse.