Ch 1: Introduction to Psychological Models of Addiction Theories and Biological Basis of Addiction

Activation of these stress systems correlate to the negative emotional state experienced during withdrawal (Koob, 2009). This results in a reduction in dopaminergic neurotransmission and therefore http://lovelylife.in.ua/astma-mozhet-byit-poleznoy-neozhidannoe-zayavlenie-uchenyih diminished positive response (Feltenstein, 2008). Heightened stress and depreciated reward pathways amalgamate during this stage and present as withdrawal and resulting compulsion.

psychological model of addiction

2. Addiction: a behavioural disorder

These studies have provided valuable information on addiction sensitivities, abuse potential and neuroadaptation mechanisms (particularly within the binge and intoxication stage of the brain-disease model) (Negus and Miller, 2014). Recent trends in ICSS have highlighted the strengths of this technique in developing our comprehension of drug-reward deficits, abuse-limiting effects, addictive relativity between substances of abuse and specific neurotransmission (Kenny et al., 2018). Other theories assert that the origin of substance use disorders is developmental learned behaviour, which nullifies the brain disease theory with claims that addictive neuroplasticity alterations mirror those seen in the development of deep habits generally (Lewis, 2017). However, common learning-behaviour theories of habitual drug-seeking describe loss of executive control over habits after neuroplasticity changes, which is harmonious with disease-rooted theories (Ostlund and Balleine, 2008).

  • Additional advantages come from comparisons of IPSCs from healthy versus addicted patients.
  • Smartphone addiction arises when individuals cannot control their usage, resulting in psychological and behavioral disturbances that impair daily functioning (Liu et al., 2017).
  • The capacity to respond to drug cues doesn’t necessarily vanish entirely, but it is deactivated; it is overridden, no longer the only goal capable of firing up the brain, and it diminishes in importance.
  • In the addiction field, compulsive drug use typically refers to inflexible, drug-centered behavior in which substance use is insensitive to adverse consequences [100].
  • Some forms of frustration may be social norms and boundaries, social rejection, loneliness, or loss (Bazan & Detandt, 2013; Loose, 2002).
  • Such disorganized mental representations may thwart the individual’s ability to make sense of their own mental and physical experience, and consequently motivate substance use and abuse to escape discomfort (Kernberg, Diamond, Yeomans, Clarkin, & Levy, 2008).

Chronic and relapsing, developmentally-limited, or spontaneously remitting?

psychological model of addiction

While neuroplasticity is the great liberator of the mind, allows people to learn languages and remember birthdays, and fuels the imagination, it has a dark side. The same process rewires the brain in response to using drugs of abuse—but, under the influence of the unnaturally fast and large flood of dopamine released, the rewiring strengthens the desire for the drug, weakens judgment and control, and prunes away the capacity to be interested in other, more natural rewards. The capacity for neuroplasticity, however, also enables the brain to rewire itself more normally once drug usage is stopped. Widely distributed in the brain, its general role is to activate the firing of neurons; it’s called an excitatory neurotransmitter.

Incentive Sensitization Theory—Robinson and Berridge (

Thus, as originally pointed out by McLellan and colleagues, most of the criticisms of addiction as a disease could equally be applied to other medical conditions [2]. This type of criticism could also be applied to other psychiatric disorders, and that has indeed been the case historically [23, 24]. Few, if any healthcare professionals continue to maintain that schizophrenia, rather than being a disease, is a normal response to societal conditions. Why, then, do people continue to question if addiction is a disease, but not whether schizophrenia, major depressive disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder are diseases? This is particularly troubling given the decades of data showing high co-morbidity of addiction with these conditions [25, 26].

1 Social isolation and smartphone addiction

The greater the feeling of loneliness is, the greater the likelihood of smartphone addiction (Liu et al., 2020; Santander-Hernández et al., 2022). In the last two to three decades, smartphones have emerged as crucial instruments for daily human activities. By June 2023, the number of mobile Internet users in China had increased to 1.076 billion. A total of 99.8% of the participants accessed the Internet through mobile devices, and the average weekly Internet usage time of Chinese users https://best-stroy.ru/docs/r130/2041 reached 29.1 h (China Internet Network Information Center, 2023). However, excessive use of smartphones may seriously interfere with individuals’ lives and learning, leading to psychological and behavioral disorders of daily functioning (Cheever et al., 2014), for example, smartphone addiction (Chiu, 2014). Smartphone addiction arises when individuals cannot control their usage, resulting in psychological and behavioral disturbances that impair daily functioning (Liu et al., 2017).

Box 1 What’s in a name? Differentiating hazardous use, substance use disorder, and addiction

We find that these modeling approaches to addiction are too disjoint and argue that in order to unravel the complexities of biopsychosocial processes of addiction, models should integrate intra- and inter-individual factors. Even when being applied to addiction and SUD, behavioral economics doesnot include any concept of psychopathology or cognitive dysfunction. https://www.tehlit.ru/1lib_Pages_gost/2.htm It is verylikely that addicted individuals are, at least at times, not fully rational decisionmakers and that their decision making processes are themselves impaired if notdisordered and are therefore a necessary target for intervention. As such,incorporating CBT into behavioral economics based interventions might enhance theireffectiveness.

  • The repetition of a highly pleasurable experience—drugs, gambling—alters neurons; they adjust their wiring to become increasingly efficient at the experience.
  • In both cases, addiction would be understood as an act of rebellion against castration, by self-administering an extra quota of jouissance (i.e., plus de jouir) with substance use (Bazan & Detandt, 2013; Lacan, 1969; Loose, 2002).
  • Notably, loneliness mediated the relationship between social isolation and smartphone addiction.
  • Quota proportional sampling was adopted, 900 self-report questionnaires were distributed through the WeChat groups of these universities from December 10 to December 15, 2022, and 868 valid questionnaires (620 females, 248 males) were ultimately obtained.
  • A critical message from informants was that the shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic increased feelings of abandonment and loneliness, as demanding periods in society often strike the most vulnerable inhabitants hardest [4, 46].

Integrating perspectives: The role of attachment

psychological model of addiction