The Biology Of Addiction And Substance Seeking Behaviors

The relationship between withdrawal, stress, and relapse also has implications for the treatment of alcoholic patients. Interestingly, animals with a history of alcohol dependence are more sensitive to certain medications that impact relapse­like behavior than animals without such a history, suggesting that it may be possible to develop medications that specifically target excessive, uncontrollable alcohol consumption. (“Alcohol Dependence”)

Psychology is a developing science which studies the mental functions, processes, and behaviors of an individual. In the science of psychology, many debates arise; nature vs. nurture is one of the most popular ones. These psychological debates are followed by research, backing up either nature or nurture or both. Nature suggest heredity impacts human psychological development; nurture suggests the environment impacts our psychological development. Addiction plays a large role in nature vs. nurture. Addiction is defined as a person being attached to a certain activity or item; an addict is one who has a dependency on particular substances or activity. There are many debates on whether addiction is caused by genes or the environment. Many researchers believe if they had the answer of addiction being a genetic condition or an environmental factor, they would be able to resolve the problem of addicts, or so they believe.

Dopamine is defined as a neurochemical that supports fine motor activity, blood pressure, focus inspiration, intuition, and joy, among other functions (“Dopamine”). The brain interprets all items of pleasure in the same manner. Whether someone has sexual intercourse, eats a delicious meal, or smokes marijuana, the brain releases dopamine in the same fashion. Drugs ranging from nicotine to heroin all produce the same signals in the nucleus accumbens, which is a group of nerve cells that sits below the cerebral cortex (“Understanding Addiction: How Addiction Hijacks the Brain”). In “Violence in Movies, Music, and Media,” by Jeanne Nagle, dopamine is compared to a shot of a heavy-duty amphetamine (38). The entertainment an individual finds in shooting another person on a TV screen is the same as one who watches a violent movie that interests them as well. As dopamine is released, the brain naturally wants more as it is very addictive by nature (“Understanding Addiction: How Addiction Hijacks the Brain”). Rosner for example, the man addicted to videogames, could sit down and be vegetative for 18 hours at a time playing his favorite game. The dopamine released while playing was enough to almost shut down his prefrontal regions in his brain that affect judgement and concern – leading him to play more and more violent games (Linden). People who begin as mildly curious or interested in the world of violence, zombies, and vampires can quickly become an addicted expert on the subject

All around the world anyone can find people that are addicted to some form of drug. Drug addiction is a huge issue that has been occurring for about thirty years now and is occurring to this day for many reasons. Some of those reasons may be that something is going on back home and they have had enough, or because of stress, peer pressure, biological reasons and the list goes on. However, there has been law enforcement due to drugs since the mid 1980’s. People have many viewpoints to when it comes to drug use and addiction. There are three perspectives people have that view the use of drugs and drug addiction which are structural functionalism, conflict, and symbolic interactionist.

Addictions are a diverse set of common and complex diseases that are to some extent tied together by shared genetic and environmental factors. Addiction includes alcohol use disorders, cannabis and cocaine use disorders, nicotine dependence, as well as non-substance–related behaviors. Both genetic and environmental variables contribute to the use and abuse of addictive substances, which may eventually lead to addiction.

The question of nature vs. nurture has been the focus of many debates, especially within the discipline of psychological sciences. This paper will examine the views that exist regarding the importance of contributions to the risk of addiction, specifically, genetic (nature) vs. environmental (nurture) contributions through a review of the existing literature.

Certain drugs are now being studied to determine whether they can be used to limit alcohol drinking and potentially treat alcoholism. Prairie voles are now involved in drug-and-alcohol studies because of their social nature. Naltrexone, a drug currently in use for treating alcoholism, was tested on prairie voles to determine whether the animals could be used to study drug treatments for alcoholism. In this study, voles shared a cage with a same-sex sibling for five days, then were placed in a cage with a wire mesh divider between animals. During a four-day period, animals were continually given water and had access to 10% ethanol each day. Animals received injections of saline the first two days, then naltrexone or saline the last two, depending on group. Both sexes of prairie voles were affected by the drug, as there was a significant decrease in alcohol preference and dose in animals exposed to naltrexone as opposed to the saline

The planarian is the first organism ever to have a fully productive synaptic nervous system (Mueller 2002). The synaptic nervous system contains nerve cells and it is when a neuron sends a signal, either electric or chemical, to another neuron and that signal contains information to be passed on or acted on (Mueller 2002). With the neural genes that are in planaria, they are able to build another fully function central nervous system, or CNS, without any of the old CNS (Cebria 2002). The CNS of a planarian is consisted of a brain in the head region and two ventral nerve cords that run down the body (Cerbria 2002).

Drug and Alcohol Treatment in America has been based on the Medical Model of Treatment. According to Wikipedia, the medical model of addiction is rooted in the philosophy that addiction is a disease and has biological, neurological, genetic, and environmental sources of origin. Treatment includes potential detox with a 28 day or more stay at a residential treatment facility. The continuum of care can include an additional 28 days at the partial hospitalization level, followed by another 6 weeks of Intensive Outpatient.

In this lab, we conducted multiple experiments on planarians and examined their reactions toward variety of stimuli. First and foremost, we have to be able to identify the fundamental structure of the planarians; especially the nervous system. Planarians are grouped into Class Turbellaria. They have a central nervous system that consists of 2 to 6 ventral nerve cords and subepideral nerve net also known as cephalization. Cephalization is more advanced because the system now has more neurons, sense cells, larger ganglia compared to the simple nerve net system. The ventral nerve cords are connected to ganglia that lay interiorly to the ventral epidermis that close to the midline and run the length of the body (Scott, 2014, p. 54). The information

Researchers Nicole L. Schramm-Sapyta, Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, and Cynthia M. Kuhn (2010), conducted the study of 'Aversive Effects of Ethanol in Adolescent vs. Adult Rats', looking to address two key questions: Number one, do reduced aversive effects of ethanol in younger rats correlate with increased ethanol consumption? and second, are the reduced aversive effects in adolescents attributable to reduced sensitivity to ethanol's physiological effects? A sample of adolescent and adult male CD rats (outbred Sprague-Dawley derived strain) were obtained from Charles River Laboratories (Raleigh, NC), and maintained in a temperature vivarium standard of 12:12 light-dark cycle throughout the experiement.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines pathology as “extreme in a way that is not normal or shows an illness or mental problem” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/). Addiction is similar however, the origin of addiction did not necessarily imply negative implications as it does in today’s definition. Hundreds of years ago, addiction simply referred to “giving over” or “being highly devoted” to a person or activity or engaging in a behavior habitually which could have positive or negative implications (Sussman & Sussman, 2011, p. 4025). The pathological and addiction relationship has contributed to society’s perception of these two words having disease like qualities which are different from compulsions. Sussman & Sussman (2011) describes

Addiction can come in many forms, leading to a whole array of symptoms and consequences. Addiction can impact on a person’s wellbeing, behaviour, functioning and cognitions. We have the ability to use different kinds of methods in order to find out about questions on how addiction can form, animal studies can indicate how drugs may affect humans. There have been many major advances in sophistication and complexity of animal models of addiction showing us

Planarians are non-parasitic flatworms in the Platyhelminthes phylum. They are free-living and are commonly found freshwater habitats however, they can also be found in marine and terrestrial environments. Planarians’ nervous systems consists of a brain and of large ganglia in which two nerve cords go throughout the body and between those nerves they have transverse nerves. The Planaria have two “eyes” which have photoreceptors help them respond to light stimuli. They also have pits containing chemoreceptors that respond to chemical stimuli. These worms have multi-branched gastrointestinal systems that allow for digestion and the movement of nutrients throughout their bodies. Planarians ingest food and excrete waste only one cavity:

Have you ever dealt with the effects of drug addict? A drug is a person who is addicted to drugs or alcohol, which has a psychological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body. The effects of drug use can vary depending on the person. According to “Causes and types of narcotic addiction: A Psychosocial View” in the Psychiatric Quarterly it says, “The causes of drugs stem from the manner of which you were introduced to it whether it be by abnormal curiosity, chance encounters with addicts and narcotic peddlers, or prolonged illness” (Ausubel). The effects of drugs can be have different effects on everyone differently depending if its for pleasure or for relieving pain Most of the effects of drugs occur in the brain, where it increases the level of dopamine at a specific site possibly giving the addict the pleasure they were feigning for (Robbins). As a child I didn’t know much about drugs except for what your parents and teachers at school tell you which is, “Just Say No.”