Drinking addiction: Psychological or physical?

Stimulants also cause the release of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that affects autonomic functions like heart rate, causing a user to feel energized. To understand how addictive substances affect the brain, it is important to first understand the basic biology of healthy brain function. Within the brain, a mix of chemical and electrical processes controls the body’s most basic functions, like breathing and digestion.

Effects of Substance Use on Brain Circuits and Functions

• If you have been consuming alcohol heavily for an extended period, quitting on your own has the potential to be dangerous.
• A recent alcohol needs assessment in England identified nearly 700 agencies providing specialist alcohol treatment, with an estimated workforce of 4,250 and an annual spend of between £186 million and £217 million (Drummond et al., 2005; National Audit Office, 2008).
• Not all people use substances, and even among those who use them, not all are equally likely to become addicted.

This research is expected to reveal new neurobiological targets, leading to new medications and non-pharmacological treatments—such as transcranial magnetic stimulation or vaccines—for the treatment of substance use disorders. A better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying substance use disorders could also help to inform behavioral interventions. Not all adolescents who experiment with alcohol, cigarettes, or other substances go on to develop a substance use disorder, but research suggests that those who do progress to more harmful use may have pre-existing differences in their brains. Brain imaging studies in people with addiction show disruptions in the function of both the Go and Stop circuits.35-37 For example, people with alcohol, cocaine, or opioid use disorders show impairments in executive function, including disruption of decision-making and behavioral inhibition. These executive function deficits parallel changes in the prefrontal cortex and suggest decreased activity in the Stop system and greater reactivity of the Go system in response to substance-related stimuli.

Psychological and emotional consequences

• It’s ideal to get ahead of a growing addiction early and seek help before things get out of hand.
• Since substances have different pharmacological effects, withdrawal is assessed using substance-specific symptoms, while tolerance is not; issues remain with the assessment of tolerance.

Mid-Stage – Mid-stage alcohol dependence is marked by a loss of control over both cravings for alcohol and drinking habits. In addition, your alcohol use may significantly impact your personal, professional, and social life. You may struggle with maintaining relationships with friends or family, and personality changes may occur.

If You Have an Addiction

These processes also control how people react to the multitudes of sounds, smells, and other sensory stimuli around them, and they organize and direct individuals’ highest thinking and emotive powers so that they can interact with other people, carry out daily activities, and make complex decisions. A growing body of substance use research conducted with humans is complementing the work in animals. For https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/is-it-possible-to-get-sober-without-aa/ example, human studies have benefited greatly from the use of brain-imaging technologies, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans. These technologies allow researchers to “see” inside the living human brain so that they can investigate and characterize the biochemical, functional, and structural changes in the brain that result from alcohol and drug use.

Differences for tobacco

Physical effects, such as organ damage and changes to your outward appearance, may also start to present. A number of social and cultural factors predict increased alcohol use, including discrimination and its related stigma. The role of discrimination and stress in health-related risk behaviors, physiological dependence on alcohol including alcohol use, is well established (Dawson et al. 2005; Hatzenbuehler 2009; Paradies 2006). The stress and coping framework frequently is applied to explain the influence of discrimination and stigma on health (Krieger 1999; Pascoe and Smart Richman 2009; Walters et al. 2002).

4.4. Psychiatric comorbidity

In contrast with the relatively positive prognosis in younger people who are alcohol dependent in the general population, the longer term prognosis of alcohol dependence for people entering specialist treatment is comparatively poor. Over a 10-year period about one third have continuing alcohol problems, a third show some improvement and a third have a good outcome (either abstinence or moderate drinking) (Edwards et al., 1988). The mortality rate is high in this population, nearly four times the age-adjusted rate for people without alcohol dependence.

When regular use ceases or is greatly reduced, the blood or tissue concentration of the substance declines and a re-adjustment is necessary. After the body re-adjusts to the absence of the substance, withdrawal symptoms diminish and eventually cease. These symptoms are adverse across substances, and their avoidance can be one reason for continued use. However, withdrawal symptoms are generally life-threatening only for alcohol, sedatives (e.g, benzodiazepines), and opioids (Koob and Volkow, 2010). In DSM-5, withdrawal is included for alcohol, cannabis, stimulants, tobacco, opioids and sedatives/tranquilizers. The withdrawal criterion is considered positive with endorsement of the required number of substance-specific symptoms, or if the substance or a related substance is used to relieve or avoid symptoms.

Alcohol is excreted in urine, sweat and breath, but the main method of elimination from the body is by metabolism in the liver where it is converted to acetaldehyde and acetate. The rate at which alcohol is metabolised and the extent to which an individual is affected by a given dose of alcohol is highly variable from one individual to another. These individual differences affect drinking behaviour and the potential for alcohol-related harm and alcohol dependence. Also, the effects of alcohol vary in the same individual over time depending on several factors including whether food has been consumed, rate of drinking, nutritional status, environmental context and concurrent use of other psychoactive drugs. Therefore, it is very difficult to predict the effects of a given amount of alcohol both between individuals and within individuals over time.

Disparities in and Influences on Alcohol Use: A Social–Ecological Framework

Neurons are organized in clusters that perform specific functions (described as networks or circuits). For example, some networks are involved with thinking, learning, emotions, and memory. Still others receive and interpret stimuli from the sensory organs, such as the eyes and ears, or the skin. The addiction cycle disrupts the normal functions of some of these neuronal networks. Animal and human studies build on and inform each other, and in combination provide a more complete picture of the neurobiology of addiction.