Development of Drug Addiction

There are many elements that take part and go beyond the single use of a drug in the development of drug addiction. Here, we'll talk about some of the more general concepts, mechanisms, and factors that influence the formation and maintenance of addiction. There are many models that try to explain this process, the most popular include: Positive and Negative reinforcement, Physical dependence, and Conditioned Withdrawal, among others.

In the case of Positive reinforcement, we have a person that starts out using a drug because of the pleasurable effects this drug produces and this then turns into an addictive behavior where the person starts to compulsively seek this pleasurable sensation. On the other hand, we have Negative reinforcement where the person continues to use the drug, not because of its pleasurable effects but, to evade withdrawal. Since the neurons need homeostasis (balance) to work correctly, when something disturbs this, they will try to adapt to achieve it, however:
“What happens when they don’t re-adjust in the absence of the drug?”  We get a drug dependent individual that relies on the drug to not only function normally but to prevent other complications; this is what we call the Physical dependence model. When a drug user, let’s take an alcohol as the drug the for example, abuses of the drug they carry the risk of acquiring long lasting changes to their dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitter pathways; if these people try to stop using alcohol suddenly, they take the risk of developing serious health problems or even death. It should be mentioned that to acquire dependence to a drug, there isn’t a need to be a regular user. Lastly, we have conditioned withdrawal, in this type of model, an extension of the Negative reinforcement model, the drug user becomes conditioned to feeling withdrawal in a series of places; even if the drug user has been drug free for an extended period of time, visiting one of the places where they made an association with withdrawal could cause them to experience the symptoms and thus propel them to seek the drug once again.

Apart from these models, there are other factors that influence if a person is more or less susceptible to becoming an addict, these can be biological, social, and even psychological. Some of the biological causes can include genetic pre-dispositions, for example, children of alcoholics or ex-alcoholics have an increased propensity to follow the same trend because of heritable genetic changes that occur. Another biological factor is how addictive the drug is itself, which depends on the drug’s composition and its effects on the body. As some of you may or may not already know, some drugs are more addictive than others. For example, although methamphetamine and MDMA belong to the amphetamine family, they are not the same, they don’t have an identical effect on the body and they are not equally as addictive, although the general effects they produce can be clumped up within a similar category. These differences are due to the administration route that is typically used with each drug since this can greatly affect how fast it reaches the brain and thus, the intensity of the effects produced by the drug. While methamphetamine can be smoked, snorted or even injected intravenously, allowing it to permeate mucous membranes faster hence allowing it a greater effect in a shorter period of time, MDMA is usually consumed orally which makes its effects less intense but longer lasting. The different routes of administration coupled with the specific “locations”, otherwise known as receptors, where the drug’s molecules can interact within the brain, enhance or reduce how addictive a drug can be.

On another hand, we have social factors that influence the susceptibility to drug addiction. Among the most prominent influencers we have: economic class, accessibility, and environment. A person with a higher income will find him or herself excluded from many influencers for the use and abuse of a myriad of drugs, in this case it could be considered a protective factor. Accessibility is important since, the less you are exposed to making the choice to use or not to use the drug, the more protected you are against becoming an addict. Environment refers to the people that usually surround you in daily life, the more accepting these people are of drug use the more likely you’ll eventually be pressured or influenced to think of drug use as something favorable. Finally, regarding psychological factors, these include: mood, personality, stress, and others. All of these factors could reduce the risk of drug use or increase it.