Physiological Aspects of Drug Addiction and Abuse Essay

The debate over the question of drug addiction and abuse as a physical disorder operates on many levels. The issue of whether there are drugs to which one can become physically addicted is a relatively uncontroversial on which most theorists agree. There is a far more vigorous debate over the cause of drug abuse and dependency, however, between those who see certain people as biologically vulnerable to drug abuse and those who see other factors such as one’s position in society or upbringing as the more relevant to the likelihood of developing the disorder.

Although most psychologists concede that some addictions are biological, there are many drugs which are not seen as “physically addictive” but which some seek to explain the use of in terms of physical dependence. There is agreed difference between the chronic drug dependency with long term affects on one’s life and the acute drug abuse, defined in DSM IV as “interference with major role obligations at work, school or home, recurrent use in potentially hazardous situations” as well as legal and social or interpersonal problems, however both have been viewed by some as biologically caused.

The theory of biological vulnerability to drug abuse and addiction holds that there are inherited factors which put certain people at risk of developing addiction than others. This has mainly been talked about in relation to alcoholism, where it has been found that a person’s chances of developing the disorder ar four times greater when one of their parents has been an alcoholic than not. In relation to physical dependency, some biologists who follow the behaviourist school see the process of continued drug use in terms of the reinforcing properties drugs have on the person who takes them.

Carlsen (1998) draws the comparison with hunger in the sense of immediate reinforcement and points to an experiment by Logan (1965) in which rats, rather than waiting for what they had been conditioned to predict was a larger amount of food, consistently went instead for a much smaller amount of food which was delivered immediately. He goes on to argue that it is the immediacy of the reinforcement of drugs which make them the most addictive. This is a weak argument both in its premises and conclusions. If this was the case, cannabis (listed by Carlsen as an addictive drug) would be more addictive than cocaine. The rat-human extrapolation is also dubious in this context.

Drug addiction and misuse cannot, therefore, be seen as a purely physical disorder as there are too many societal and familial aspects to the use of drugs for it to be seen purely as a kind of reinforcement. Biology can, however be extremely useful in helping us to understand the effects of drugs and, in relation to addiction, the withdrawal symptoms and craving effects many sufferers and psychologists, with supporting evidence from Maladono et al.(1992) feel are responsible for addiction from drugs such as heroine and cocaine.

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