Drug Addiction: Psychological Aspects and Theories

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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................1
BODY...........................................................................................................................................................1
THEORIES OF DRUG ADDICTION..................................................................................................................3
NEURO SCIENTIFIC THEORY.....................................................................................................................3
COGNITIVE THEORY.................................................................................................................................4
NEURO ADAPTATION THEORY.................................................................................................................5
ATTITUDE OF DRUG TAKING AMONG PUBLIC MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT.................................................6
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Drug refers to the substance that can be derived from natural sources or even developed
synthetically to provide certain effects on human body to cure diseases. Drugs in advanced
medicine are major part as it provides a huge field of pharmacology that deals with different
kinds of drugs and their development and utilization for the cure and prevention of different
diseases (Darbro and Malliarakis, 2012.) In modern times drugs are used more than just in
medical field but people have identified their effects on their brain and the certain amount of
euphoria some of the drugs cause that may help different individual cope with life, reduce pain
and suffering or may just allow them to feel good. This realization by the human of the effects
of such drugs has made it as a substance of abuse and excessive illegal usage. Drug abuse is a
common problem in world today most of the drug addicts are people ranging from 15 to 60
years of age (Verster et al, 2012). In this assignment the discussion will aim to reveal the root
cause and identify the psychological aspects of human beings taking drugs. It will focus on
revealing the theories regarding drug addiction and why people take drugs.
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BODY
Drug addiction is a common concern in today’s world. It is estimated from the world drug
report that about 255 million people in entire world are drug addicts today (EMCDDA statistical
report 2018). Drugs are beneficial to human body f taken in a desired quantity to produce just
required effects to kill disease and promote cure, addiction to these drugs is always hazardous
to human health. It is seen that from the global drug addict population around 29.5 million
people are living with drug induced complications and orientation diseases (EMCDDA statistical
report 2018). It is a rising question due to the rising concern of addiction tat why any person
from being a healthy living entity converts to a drug addict. Different theories are being
presented to prove the cause and reason for why people shift from healthy living to be a drug
addict. Drugs make the human body suffer both physically as well as mentally. More effects are
seen on mental health and wellbeing of an individual. Addiction is defined as a phenomenon
where a person even willing to stop the usage or habit is still incapable of doing so. Drugs
usually get into the human system changing the structure and functioning of the systems to
such an extent that it converts to addiction in no time. It is seen that the first time a person
takes drug is for fun or to just get the feeling that it produces. Initially the person taking drug
gets the feeling of euphoria and the drug affects the part of brain that enhances this feeling.
After prolonged practice of using drugs and taking them continuously this part of brain gets
used to the effects it produces and the excitation of the brain transmitter by that quantity is no
more achieved and the person starts taking the drug in increased quantity to get the desired
effects. This step of enhancing the quantity of drug and using it repeatedly to achieve desired
effects makes a person at verge of addiction (Wise and Koob, 2014).
Some of the common reasons identified why people start taking drugs are to overcome the
stress of life and cope with the events going on in life, to feel good and stop feelings bad due to
significant life events, to try what others are doing, some people even start drugs to perform
well in their field of interest and work. The start of using drug is mostly not with the intention of
getting addicted but sooner due to continuous administration the person gets addicted to it and
it becomes never ending cycle. The first and foremost signs of addiction identified by the
patient are irritability, anxiousness, anger, and mood shifts when the drug is not taken into the
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body. Another question is how can people get access to these sorts of drugs? Answer to which
is that people take drugs in different form and also get them from market illegally and even by
manipulating the prescriptions. There is a whole chain of drug dealers in black market
worldwide and even in UK. These dealers supply drugs illegally at a higher rate and the addicts
are prone to buy the drugs from them to satisfy their urge (Ersche et al, 2010). Drug addiction is
such a severe process that a person who gets addicted stops leading a normal healthy life at all,
he can even stop sleeping or eating a proper diet and on contrary can attempt for doing
anything to achieve drugs and take them. It is seen that criminal activities are mostly initiated
due to drug administration and most of the people found in such crimes committed of stealing,
or performing the crime to achieve money to buy drugs or get access to them. The addiction
makes a person leave his sanity and direct to practice illegal and bad things that may lead them
into trouble. Teenagers nowadays are at highest risk of drug addiction. Also they are the most
common target of the drug dealers all over the world.
There are different methods of administering drugs into the system. Some people us the pills or
take these drugs orally whereas some people administer them with help of syringes into the
veins through the skin. Both the methods are used frequently by drug addicts and some of
them also use both oral and self-administrable drug syringes. Orally abused substances include
prescription drugs, opioids, alcohol etc. these substance are usually taken orally in excessive
quantity. It is estimated by world drug report that around 12 million people globally use
injectable drugs (World drug report 2017). As well as this practice is found common for
promoting the prevalence of blood borne diseases that is HIV and Hepatitis B. these diseases
can be easily transmitted through the sufferer to healthy individual by using common syringes
for injecting drugs. It is also found that 1.6 million people who use injectable drugs are living
with HIV and 6.1 million people have Hepatitis B. Also 1.3 million of drug addict population has
both HIV and Hepatitis B. even overdose is a common issue seen with drug addicts and death
due to overdose is being increasing in number every year. It is also estimated that opioid use
overdose death rate was 190,000 for the last year (EMCDDA statistical report 2018). These
rates reveals that drugs not only have mental implications to the human body and deteriorate
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their thinking process and mental wellbeing but they are also responsible for producing effects
on life and quality of life by inducing life threatening and limiting diseases.
DRUG RELATED DISEASES
number of people who inject
drugs
number of people who has HIV
number of people who suffer
rom Hepatitis B
nmber of people who suffer
from both
(FIG. 1 shows prevalence of drug related diseases by injecting drugs).
THEORIES OF DRUG ADDICTION
NEURO SCIENTIFIC THEORY
Neuro scientific theory is widely accepted theory in order to better understand the concept of
drug addiction. This theory explains the process of addiction by explaining how the drugs affect
human brain physiology n human beings. This theory explains this concept in two manner one
by endogenous opioid mechanism and other by dopamine reward system mechanism.
Dopamine reward system
This mechanism explains that whenever a person takes drug the drug has tendency to target
the part of brain that causes euphoria and floods that part of brain with dopamine that is the
neuro transmitter in brain. This neuro transmitter has ability to produce feelings of euphoria
and lightness. This process is known as reward system of brain where the person is being
rewarded to repeat the behavior that are good for their life and living such as eating, sleeping,
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bathing etc. here the drug targets this mechanism in brain and initiates the repeated behavior
of consuming drugs. This system then allows the drug to overpower the reward system in a
manner that a person has no more efficiency for other practices but only has affinity to
consume drugs (Everitt and Robbins, 2016).
Endogenous opiate pathway
This pathway reveals how the naturally present opiate in human body are modified by use of
drugs and create the feelings of euphoria and produce addiction. It is seen that exogenous
opiates such as heroine, morphine and codeine have ability to act as opiate antagonist in
human body and target the opiates present in the body. This ability of these drugs makes them
opiate receptor antagonist and lead to dependence and tolerance by human being. Person
starts using more and more amount of these drugs to relieve the pain or produce same desired
effects to overcome tolerance. This system is highly meant responsible for producing sedation,
restlessness and satiation of reward system for some psychoactive substances(Skinner and
Aubin, 2010).
COGNITIVE THEORY
Cognitive theory relates addiction through the life experiences and the self-actualization that a
person attains. This theory explains how the self-fulfilling attitude of a person derived from the
past life experiences will allow him to behave in the manner that whatever I think or believe
will happen. In case of drug addiction this self-fulfilling is achieved when a person after knowing
the adverse effects of drug consumption to his health still cannot abolish the habit or stop it. A
person or drug addict mostly has this belief that they will not be able to quit the habit and this
makes them self-realize that they are so entrapped by drugs that there is no way out. When the
drug stoppage created withdrawal signs and symptoms they put an extra effort to cope with
these symptoms to avoid use of drugs rather their self-realize of getting failed causes them to
fail in real. Addictive behavior becomes never ending when excessive reliance is identified for
external domains (Hu et al, 2011). This theory explains how the drug addict acquires the belief
that drug consumption is essential for his living and better life and don’t put any efforts to stop
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it. This is why cognitive behavior therapies are most effective in controlling drug addiction and
drug related disorders.
NEURO ADAPTATION THEORY
Neuro adaptation theory explains how the changes a drug administers in brain that is not the
acute changes but the ones that last for longer duration causing addiction. This theory like
neuro scientific theory also defines the addiction process by either of two pathways that is
system adaptation pathway where the drug works at a particular system where it is
administered locally and between system adaptation where the drug not only locally targets
the administered system but also shows interaction and effects on different systems (West and
Brown, 2013). Continuous use of drug modifies the brain functioning and brain has opposing
effects on drug consumption process. The brain of an individual gets so addictive to this feeling
that when the person tries to stop taking drugs or quit the habit this brain functioning starts to
produce symptoms that are not normal while drug is administered. These symptoms are known
as withdrawal signs. The homeostasis between the body systems and the brain is lost due to
sudden stopping of substance and this cause withdrawal symptom to hike up. This theory also
shows correlation between stress and mental issues when drug use is stopped and it can lead
to relapse. Till now theorists have only focused on physical changes of drug removal or
withdrawal but this theory also highlights the psychological changes or effects that are present
due to withdrawal including anxiety, irritability, depression and psychosis (Schwabe, Dickinson
and Wolf, 2011).
ATTITUDE OF DRUG TAKING AMONG PUBLIC MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT
Public
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Drug dependency and abuse is not considered a good practice in society and usually drug
addicts are subject to discrimination and stigmatization from the society. Although public show
relative amount of sympathy and understanding towards drug addiction. In a survey by Scottish
government in 2016 it was found that most of the people who were analyzed for their attitude
towards drug abuse had considerable understanding for the cause of drug dependency and
showed some amount of sympathy towards the addicts. Even they agreed that drug
dependency is an illness and not a choice and the people who are suffering from it are
demonized in media (Brener et al, 2010). Public votes also incremented for the view that drug
recovering people should be a part of our community and treated the same way as normal
individuals. Some share of population also reported their belief of drug dependency to be lack
of will power and self-discipline in individual. Overall report concluded that public attitude
towards drug abuse is that this is the concern that should be addressed with proper strategies
and better care.
Media
Media including television, internet, social media, radio, newspaper etc. have a very essential
role in portraying any social issue in front of common public. As seen throughout years media
has demonized the drug addicts and is responsible for creating taboo regarding drug addiction.
Media has always pointed too little expenditure of funds from the government and authorities
to address the concern of drug abuse. In reality this is not the scenario everywhere (Fletcher,
Bonell and Hargreaves, 2008). Media can be used effectively to reduce prevalence of drug
abuse by promoting media campaigns and messages for harmful effects of drugs.
Government
Government always portrays drug abuse as a sever concern that is hampering the economy of
the nation. The use of drugs by youth in the nation is widely the root cause of deteriorated
economy of the region as youth are key elements to frame the powerful economy of the
country. Drug use extracts the normal senses out of a person that has been reported to
enhance the crime and reduced quality of life of individuals. Government has taken up various
strategies for improving the scenario related to drug use and for this they have identified four
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main people who can work together to achieve control (Shoemaker, 2012). Police, education,
parent involvement and peer focus, these are the four aspects that can help prevent more and
more of teenagers and young individual to get into drug cycles. Police can ensure control over
target communities and dealers, education through schools can enhance awareness among the
teens, peer focus and groups can help them help one another and parent involvement will help
reduce the prevalence by getting control on the teen’s daily activities.
CONCLUSION
Drug abuse and substance use in world has become a major problem that requires better
strategies and ways to be controlled. Rising rates of drug related disorders and diseases have
raise concerns for its stoppage. People are not willing to use drugs but they are mentally
trapped in the effects of drugs that they believe to survive by its use. Different theories
explained how drug addicts get addicted to drugs and how drugs modify the brain functioning
of human being. The attitude of media creates negative influence on public perception for drug
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user and allows them to be stigmatized whereas it was also seen that public in current times
are aware of this illness and reports to show empathy towards drug recovering patients.
Governmental strategies are also helpful in promoting prevention of this societal issue and
improve the conditions regarding drug abuse. Hence, it can be concluded that drug abuse is a
vast phenomenon and every individual has to be dealt individually for the type of abuse they do
and the reason for their drug usage.
REFERENCES
Brener, L., Von Hippel, W., Von Hippel, C., Resnick, I. and Treloar, C., 2010. Perceptions of
discriminatory treatment by staff as predictors of drug treatment completion: utility of a
mixed methods approach. Drug and Alcohol Review, 29(5), pp.491-497.
Darbro, N. and Malliarakis, K.D., 2012. Substance abuse: Risks factors and protective factors.
Journal of Nursing Regulation, 3(1), pp.44-48.
EMCDDA statistical report 2018. Online last assessed on 19/1/2019 at
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/data/stats2018/gps
Ersche, K.D., Turton, A.J., Pradhan, S., Bullmore, E.T. and Robbins, T.W., 2010. Drug
addiction endophenotypes: impulsive versus sensation-seeking personality traits. Biological
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Psychiatry, 68(8), pp.770-773. Online last assessed on 19/1/2019 at
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006322310006049
Everitt, B.J. and Robbins, T.W., 2016. Drug addiction: updating actions to habits to
compulsions ten years on. Annual review of psychology, 67, pp.23-50.
Fletcher, A., Bonell, C. and Hargreaves, J., 2008. School effects on young people’s drug use:
a systematic review of intervention and observational studies. Journal of adolescent health,
42(3), pp.209-220.
Hu, X., Primack, B.A., Barnett, T.E. and Cook, R.L., 2011. College students and use of K2: an
emerging drug of abuse in young persons. Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and
policy, 6(1), p.16. online last assessed on 24/1/2019 at
https://substanceabusepolicy.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1747-597X-6-16
Schwabe, L., Dickinson, A., and Wolf, O.T., 2011. Stress, habits, and drug addiction: a
psychoneuroendocrinological perspective. Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology,
19(1), p.53.
Shoemaker, P.J., 2012. Communication campaigns about drugs: Government, media, and
the public. Routledge.
Skinner, M.D. and Aubin, H.J., 2010. Craving's place in addiction theory: contributions of the
major models. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 34(4), pp.606-623.
Verster, J.C., Brady, K., Galanter, M. and Conrod, P. eds., 2012. Drug abuse and addiction in
medical illness: causes, consequences, and treatment. Springer Science & Business Media.
West, R. and Brown, J., 2013. Theory of addiction. John Wiley & Sons.
Wise, R.A. and Koob, G.F., 2014. The development and maintenance of drug addiction.
Neuropsychopharmacology, 39(2), p.254.
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World drug report 2017. Online last assessed on 19/1/2019 at
https://www.unodc.org/wdr2017/index.html
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