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The modern disease theory of alcoholism states that problem drinking is sometimes caused by a disease of the brain, characterized by altered brain structure and function. Today, alcohol use disorder (AUD) is used as a more scientific and suitable approach to alcohol dependence and alcohol -related problems.
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]
According to the new disease model, rather than being a disease in the conventional sense, addiction is a disease of choice. That is, it is a disorder of the parts of the brain necessary to make proper decisions. As one becomes addicted to cocaine, the ventral tegmentum nucleus accumbens in the brain is the organ. [5]
Peele maintains that, depending on the person, abstinence or moderation are valid approaches to treat excessive drinking. In a Psychology Today article which compared the Life Process Program with the disease model, [12] he also argues against the theory proposed decades ago by modern physicians, mental health professionals, research scientists, etc. that addiction is a disease. [13]
William Duncan Silkworth (July 22, 1873 – March 22, 1951) was an American physician and specialist in the treatment of alcoholism.He was director of the Charles B. Towns Hospital for Drug and Alcohol Addictions in New York City in the 1930s, during which time William Griffith Wilson, a future co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), was admitted on four occasions for alcoholism.
Dr. Gene Heyman [14] and others assert alcoholism is not a progressive, incurable disease. See disease theory of alcoholism for a full discussion. The diagnostic assessment of alcoholism in someone can include an assessment of co-morbidity with conditions such as mental illness and domestic violence.
Dodes received an A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1966, his D.M.S. from Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine in 1968, and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1970. He is a training and supervising analyst emeritus of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and a retired assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Models of addiction risk that have been proposed in psychology literature include an affect dysregulation model of positive and negative psychological affects, the reinforcement sensitivity theory model of impulsiveness and behavioral inhibition, and an impulsivity model of reward sensitization and impulsiveness. [1] [5] [6]