?Discuss The Biological And Psychological Factors That Underlie Drug Abuse And Addiction Essay, Research Paper

In

order to fully understand this question it is important to define exactly what

is meant

by

the key terms used; the Oxford English Popular English Dictionary? (Parragon, Oxford

1995) defines ?abuse?? as; ?To make bad

or wrong use of; to maltreat?, and it defines

?addiction? as the condition of doing or using something as a habit or compulsively

(esp. of drug taking, with adverse effects on ceasing) devotion to an interest.During

this essay I hope to show how drugs alter the way the brain works, and the way

it perceives situation. I hope to show the consequences of drug use and abuse

and also

to show what research is being undertaken in an attempt to alleviate these problems.Recently

we have seen a huge increase in the use of?

legal and illegal drugs in our society

as some have been used for legitimate purposes, others have also been seriously

misused- this misuse can be defined as drug abuse and addiction this addiction

encores both psychological and physiological addition, and drug abuse often leads

to this addiction.As

an example of a drug which can be abused I shall look at Cocaine. Cocaine is a white

powder refined from the coca plant, which grows in South America,? it is a short

acting stimulant which quickly reaches the brain and it produces effects such

as talkativeness,

excess confidence increased appetite and euphoria. As these effects only

last around thirty minutes the user feels they need more in order to overcome

the effects

received on a ?come down?. These include paranoia and irritability. Regular users

suffer poor sleeping patterns the feeling of not being able to cope without the

drug.

So how are these effects caused??Alcohol, cocaine, nicotine even caffeine are

just some of the drugs which can lead to addition

and abuse. All of these cause their effects through the brain,? mostly it is the brain?s

?reward system? where the effects begin.?

The network of neurons is activated when

we perform the daily activities which help to keep us alive ? such as eating,

the brain

provides a ?reward? associated with pleasurable feelings so encouraging us to repeat

these actions. Drugs also stimulate this system but often produce effects far

in excess

of these received from natural daily functions, so the influence of these drugs

on

the brain encourages the user to repeat drug use.Findings

indicate that there are two or more receptor sites which meditate the effects of

the drugs, one site meditates the euphoria, while the other mediates pain killing.Different

drugs mimic the effects of brain neurotransmitters at synaptic receptors. Opiates

such as heroine or morphine mimic the opioids such as endorphins or enkephalins,

nicotine mimics acetylcholine, cannabis mimics endocannabinoids and amphetamine/cocaine

mimics dopamine/norepinephrine. In the

1950s researchers Olds and Milner (1954) produced experiments on intracranial self

stimulation (ICSS) here they discovered that under certain circumstances rats would

dismiss the pleasure of water, food or sexual partners in order to keep an area

of

the brain over stimulated by an electrode, this is how the reward centre got

its name.

This ?centre? got the name ?circuit? when researchers found that linked brain locations

are involved in pleasure. The circuit includes a set of neurons found in the ventral

tegmental area (VTA) which connect to the nucleus accumbens and to other areas

such as the prefrontal cortex.Some

neuroscientists now are studying the molecular mechanisms that drugs alter within

the circuit, they study the way that dopamine is produced and how its messages are

received (Dopamine is a chemical messenger), they believe that drug?s influence

on

these mechanisms eventually change the way neurons within the system act. ?Simply

put drugs and ICCS block the biological reward pathways, drugs provide a rapid

intense reward not found within day to day realms, normal rewards get replaced by

the need to get the high produced form the acquisition of the drug. The rate at

which

this motivational toxicity develops depends on the type of drug, the way that

it is

administered and its psychological impact. (Pleasure and Addiction ? Dr Tim Kirkham

2001) So

the life of the addict becomes centred around receiving more drugs, so

behavioural patters? can be produced which would not normally be

seen in an individual free of these

craving, such as steeling and manipulation in the case of women ? sometimes prostitution.

We cannot also ignore the risks associated with taking these drugs, poor diet

often leads to ill health and increased susceptibility to ailments. Unsterile equipment

used for taking or injecting the drugs leaves the user more open to catching such

diseases as hepatitis or HIV, and without proper regulations centring around those

of these drugs? a risk can be formed

surrounding the question of the purity of the drugs

themselves which could lead to overdose. If a heroin user overdoses,

respiration is

slowed, which causes coma, and eventually death.Addiction

is more associated, however with a general deterioration of health and personality. There

are many factors set to encourage an individual to take narcotic in the first place,

relating to stress, personal problems or problems at work even sociocultural conditions.

????Narcotic dependency seems to be centred around an

antisocial personality and other psychopathology. Chinlund

(1969) studied the use of narcotics? by

women, he studied women in New York

for a period of seven years and found that that the user has three main goals;

1) A conscious

wish to lose control of the drug usage so that she can blame her failures on

the drug. 2) To blot out all sense of time, so that she can hide from things happening

in her frustrating life situation. And 3) The need to deny cause and effect relationships

?in her life such as the relationship

between sexual intercourse and pregnancy.

?( Abnormal Psychology and Modern life-

p440 ? James Coleman ? 1976)Drugs

are often turned to as a means of alleviating anxiety and coping with problems caused

by stress, until these principal issues are dealt with in our society there

will always

be drug usage and drug abuse.Aldous

Huxley remarked;?

that humanity at large will ever be able to dispense with artificial paradises

seems very

unlikely. Most men and women lead lives which at worse so painful, at the best so

monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape, the longing to transcend themselves

if only for a few minutes, is and always has been one of the principle appetites

of the soul.’This

is a view shared by many people, who seem that drug usage does not always lead to addiction,

and indeed, even if it does lead to addiction, that addiction, does not always

bring about the demise of the person both physically and socially? of it is able to

be controlled. However although attitudes are changing towards drug usage, especially

among the more affluent, we can still see the devastation drug addiction can

cause, especially as those who feel the need to use drugs are generally of the frame

of mind which leaves them more susceptible to their consequences. ???Scientists

are now searching for ways to block some drugs from producing their effect on

the brain. Cocaine works by blocking a pump which regulates dopamine?s messaging.

It is hoped that new drugs will attach to the transporter and make it ignore the

cocaine but continue with its regular functioning, this appears ?be working with rats? and the?

treatment is now being tested in humans.