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The common biomolecular mechanisms underlying addiction – CREB and ΔFosB – were reviewed by Eric J. Nestler in a 2013 review. [3] Genetics and mental disorders may precipitate the severity of a drug addiction. It is estimated that 50% of healthy individuals developing an addiction can trace the cause to genetic factors. [4]
Addiction hijacks the brain’s reward system, which normally encourages individuals to engage in survival-related activities such as socializing, eating, or achieving goals. Substances or specific behavioral activities create an intense “high” by flooding the reward system with dopamine, a chemical commonly known as “a feel-good chemical".
Neuroscientists believe that drug addicts’ behavior is a direct correlation to some physiological change in their brain, caused by using drugs. This view believes there is a bodily function in the brain causing the addiction. This is brought on by a change in the brain caused by brain damage or adaptation from chronic drug use. [1] [2]
Addiction treatment must also help the individual maintain a drug-free lifestyle, and achieve productive functioning in the family, at work, and in society. Addiction is a disease which alters the structure and function of the brain. The brain circuitry may take months or years to recover after the addict has recovered. [42]
A brain disease model of addiction, based on the extent of neuroadaptation and impaired control, is main position advanced for proposing a disease model of alcohol use disorder. [5] However, if managed properly, damage to the brain can be stopped and to some extent reversed. [ 6 ]
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 ...
Toby Fischer lives in South Dakota, where just 27 doctors are certified to prescribe buprenorphine -- a medication that blunts the symptoms of withdrawal from heroin and opioid painkillers. A Huffington Post analysis of government data found nearly half of all counties in America don't have such a certified physician. So every month, Fischer and his mother drive to Colorado to pick up their ...
Behavioral addiction is a treatable condition. [20] Treatment options include psychotherapy and psychopharmacotherapy (i.e., medications) or a combination of both. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most common form of psychotherapy used in treating behavioral addictions; it focuses on identifying patterns that trigger compulsive behavior and making lifestyle changes to promote ...