Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Helping an individual stop using drugs is not enough. 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.
This has provided key insights on the underlying mechanisms of addiction, including substance use and non-substance (behavioral) addictions. [15] 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 ...
A 2012 study conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University concluded that the U.S. treatment system is in need of a “significant overhaul” and questioned whether the country’s “low levels of care that addiction patients usually do receive constitutes a form of medical malpractice.”
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 ...
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 ...
According to addiction researcher Martin A. Plant, some people go through a period of self-redefinition before initiating recreational drug use. [14] They tend to view using drugs as part of a general lifestyle that involves belonging to a subculture that they associate with heightened status and the challenging of social norms. [ 14 ]
In 2020, the National Institute on Drug Abuse released a research report which supported allegations that marijuana is a "gateway" [3] to more dangerous substance use; one of the peer-reviewed papers cited in the report claims that while "some studies have found that use of legal drugs or cannabis are not a requirement for the progression to ...
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]