addiction disorders for psychology

7/28/2019 Addiction Disorders for Psychology

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ADDICTION DISORDERS

JACK L. BODDEN, PH.D.



Drugs can make us do weirdand strange things, butsometimes it doesn’t even take

drugs to bring on strangebehavior. Watch this….



Substance Related Disorders

DSM IV uses the above classification for thedisorders our text includes under the title of

“Addiction Disorders”. IN DSM there are twosubcategories: 1. Substance Use Disorders (e.g. Alcohol Dependence) and Substance InducedDisorders (e.g. Alcohol or nicotine intoxication). We

will only cover disorders that DSM calls “SubstanceUse” disorders.



ESSENTIAL TERMINOLOGY

• Addictive Behavior – behavior based on a pathologicalneed for a substance or activity. DSM IV does notrecognize “addictive behaviors” such as pathological

gambling but instead refers to them under the headingof Impulse Control Disorders.

• Substance Abuse – involves a pattern of pathological use resulting in potentially hazardousbehavior or persistent use despite adverse social,legal, or health problems.



• Substance Dependence – involves a marked

physiological need for increasing amounts of thesubstance (tolerance) as well as withdrawalsymptoms that accompany abstinence from thedrug.

• Psychoactive Substance – drugs that affectmental functioning

• Intoxication – a reversible state cause byingestion/exposure to a substance causingmaladaptive behavioral or psychological changesdue to the effect of the drug on the central

nervous system.



How can a behavior (e.g.gambling) become an

addiction?



The Neurobiology of Addiction

The Mesocorticolimbic Dopamine Pathway (MCLP) is the so-calledpleasure pathway in the brain (see Fig. 12.1 in text). Alcohol and

other addiction causing substances appear to stimulate this regionof the brain, which in turn creates strong pleasurable responses. Animal studies appear to demonstrate that behavior whichstimulates this same area has the potential to create “addictivebehavior patterns” in much the same way as the drugs.

Apparently the pleasurable reactions created by the drug or thebehavior act as reinforcers that rapidly establish durable habitpatterns.



Learning and Addictions

• Behaviors or substances which reduce aversiveemotional states (e.g. stress, anxiety, or boredom)reinforce (operant conditioning) those behaviors (or the

act of using the drug). The pleasurable state acts as thereinforcement that establishes the habit pattern. Onceestablished other physiological changes in the brainoccur which create the condition we call an “addiction”.

So in a sense addictions are “learned”.



CATEGORIES OF ABUSABLE

SUBSTANCES



CAUSAL FACTORS IN ADDICTIONS

Biological Factors - MCLP; differences in how etoh ismetabolized in the body

Genetics – very important but not the whole story

Poor parental models & guidance

Learning – stress reduction, pleasure &

reinforcement

Racial, cultural & religious influences



Continued next time with guestspeaker, Sharon Sandifer-Bethea

of Scott & White Clinic

addiction disorders for psychology

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