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The disease model of addiction describes an addiction as a disease with genetic, biological, neurological or environmental origin. [1] The traditional medical model of disease requires only an abnormal condition causing distress, discomfort or dysfunction to an affected individual.
ΔFosB is the most significant biomolecular mechanism in addiction because the overexpression of ΔFosB in the D1-type medium spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens is necessary and sufficient for many of the neural adaptations and behavioral effects (e.g., expression-dependent increases in drug self-administration and reward sensitization ...
Additionally, genetics play a role on individual traits, which may put one at increased risk for experimentation with drugs, continued use of drugs, addictions, and potential for relapse. Some of these individual personality traits, such as impulsivity, reward-seeking, and response to stress, may lead to increased vulnerability to addiction. [14]
Drug use is not evenly distributed in the population. Research has shown that the prevalence of substance use problems varies in fairly reliable ways according to age, sex, and sociodemographic characteristics. Overall, and across drug categories—including alcohol, coffee, cannabis, and nicotine—men make up the primary drug demographic. [47]
In drug addiction, the drug-seeking behaviors become reinforced by the rush of dopamine that follows the administration of a drug of abuse. The effects of drugs of abuse on the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) have been studied extensively. [16] Drugs of abuse change the complexity of dendritic branching as well as ...
The latter reflects physical dependence in which the body adapts to the drug, requiring more of it to achieve a certain effect (tolerance) [25] and eliciting drug-specific physical or mental symptoms if drug use is abruptly ceased (withdrawal). Physical dependence can happen with the chronic use of many drugs—including even appropriate ...
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder . Differing definitions of drug abuse are used in public health , medical, and criminal justice contexts.
Substance dependence, also known as drug dependence, is a biopsychological situation whereby an individual's functionality is dependent on the necessitated re-consumption of a psychoactive substance because of an adaptive state that has developed within the individual from psychoactive substance consumption that results in the experience of withdrawal and that necessitates the re-consumption ...