Addiction is the persistent and compulsive use of a drug substance despite the being conscious of the negative consequences of the drug on their health, social life, and mental wellbeing. Addicts will be driven by the focus to find and use the drug. In their quest to get their next dose, they will have little regard for their safety, the safety of others, morals or even the law. Indicators of addiction include; consumption of the substance for longer than is advisable and in excess quantities, having the desire to reduce usage but not being able to, having strong urges to consume the substance, failing to perform tasks or responsibilities because of the substances’ use, abandonment of activities previously done for leisure, needing gradually higher quantities of the substance to get the desired effect and development of withdrawal symptoms which are alleviated by consuming more of the substance. Withdrawal symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, irritability, restlessness, anxiety tremors and seizures. In some cases, withdrawal symptoms can be lethal if not managed by a medical professional. Addiction can be to drugs such as alcohol, opioids, marijuana, prescription drugs, etc. but addiction is not only to psychoactive substances, there is also the addiction to gambling, to the internet and online gaming, pornography. Addicts will often also develop disorders such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and other behavioral disorders which are brought about by the substance use.
This paper will explore what learning is in the context of addiction to drugs. It will establish how the body learns and comes to depend on substances once they become addictive. It will also explore the cognitive effect that drug use has on the brain of the person using the drug.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The symptoms of addiction may be behavioral or biological. An addict might have wild mood swings, decreased motivation, and financial problems as they try to sustain an expensive drug habit, stealing, poor physical appearance and hygiene, exacerbation of pre-existing medical conditions, paranoia, and deterioration of interpersonal relationships among other symptoms. Granted, some of the symptoms are substance-specific. While some people retain the ability to use the substance in a controllable manner, the vast majority become chronic and compulsive users who even after periods of abstinence and subsiding of withdrawal symptoms, the risk of relapse remains high.
Addiction can is associated with the learning. The three major types of learning are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning. Addiction can be viewed as instances where the brain overlearns or remembers a pathological association too strongly. Scientists, by looking at cells and synapses, have established similarities between the nature of responses derived from addictive substances and other forms of learning that are considered normal and which occur naturally. Classical or respondent conditioning occurs when stimuli elicit a specific automatic response in the recipient. The classic example is when Ivan Pavlov conditioned dogs to salivate at the sound of a ringing bell by repetitively ringing the bell when he was availing food to the dog. The dogs finally came to associate the ringing of the bell so that even when there was no food, the sound of the bell automatically led to salivation.
Classical conditioning involves Unconditioned Response (UCR), Unconditioned Stimulus, Conditioned Stimulus and Conditioned Response. In the context of addiction, the Unconditioned Response may be the ‘high’ that is associated with smoking marijuana which is the unconditioned stimulus. The lighter used to light the roll of marijuana, in this case, is the Neutral Stimulus as it is always present to facilitate the use of marijuana. After prolonged use, the lighter becomes a conditioned stimulus and is linked to marijuana so that when the drug user sees it he has the craving to smoke. At this point, the lighter becomes conditioned stimulus and the ‘high’ becomes a Conditioned Response (CR). The conditioned Stimulus can be the paraphernalia associated with the drug use, emotional states, environment or even certain people. These cues are learned and remembered by the brain such that when presented, they elicit craving for the drug, actively seeking for it and ultimately its consumption. A drug user will want to use the substance because he anticipates a certain desirable income. It may be a sense of euphoria, relief from pain, relaxation, increased stamina, etc. Once addiction sets in, however, logic and morals can be sidelined with the aim of getting the next fix. Repetitive use of the drug causes the body to change in ways that bring about dependence on the drug which causes withdrawal symptoms when the body goes for longer than it is used to without getting the drug. The addict may need the drug so they can function normally making the symptoms an incentive to use the drug.
Even after a long period of abstinence from the drug, the learned cues which had formed Conditioned Stimulus are still likely to cause a relapse. The addict can remove himself from the environment that facilitated, provided the chance to use the addictive substance. Medical professions fashion a system through which an addict can take the drug or substitutes of the drug in gradually smaller quantities until the body adapts back to the state it was in before consumption of the drug started.
Studies have shown that neural pathways involved with drug use and other cognitive functions such as learning, decision-making, inhibition, memory and reasoning overlap. Persistent drug use leads to the development of negative connections between the substance use and environmental cues that might precipitate cravings for the substance. Substance use changes the function of the brain regions that are involved with cognitive functions thus making it harder to abstain from drugs and even learn behavior that would foster abstinence. The drugs nurture a strong drug-stimulus association. Neural chemicals associated with motivation become more sensitized to the drug and to the stimuli making it a lot easier for the brain to capture the stimuli. Impulsive individuals are more likely to act on these stimuli. Drugs will weaken the cognitive functions such as logic and inhibition which, under normal circumstances, would help a person to appreciate the negative consequences of the drug. The automatic response associated with the stimulus/drug, however, remain unchanged making the person more susceptible to stimulus. It is for this reason that addicts or people trying to quit frequently relapse even though they have the will to reform.
Alcohol and alcoholism cause a reduction in the memory capabilities, reduced emotional control, and in some cases of Alcohol-Related dementia (ARD) such as Korsakoff’s syndrome and Korsakoff’s psychosis which may lead to depression, apathy, anxiety and memory impairment. Chronic alcoholics who drink heavily have abnormalities in the frontal lobe which regulates risk-taking, short-term memory, moods, and attention.
Stimulants such as amphetamines, ecstasy, cocaine, and mephedrone which are taken to enhance cognitive performance and induce euphoria also have the long-term effects such as learning impairment and verbal memory. Cocaine, for example, may hinder the formation and growth of cells in the hippocampus and consequently impair working memory. Reduced serotonin and dopamine activity caused by methamphetamines causes shifts in mood, hallucination, and impaired memory. Ecstasy causes damage to central serotonin nerve terminals which reduces learning and memory capacity. Persistent use of ecstasy will affect will also cause a reduction in appetite and general decline of mental health.
The magnitude of the effect of drugs on the cognition of drug users varies. The variables include; method of administration, amount of dosage over time, the period over which the drug has been used, genetics and the age at which drug use began. In early onset of substance use, especially during adolescence, is particularly dangerous because it is at this period that the brain is malleable and is developing new neural pathways which may be affected more permanently by substance consumption leading to significantly more cognitive impairment than in people whose begun substance use later on. Older users, on the other hand, more vulnerable to the cognitive effects of substance use such a faster deterioration of memory and attention.
Practitioners working with drug users should inform them the potential consequences of substance use on their cognitive functions. In cases where cognitive impairment has already set in, patients should be helped to establish visual cues that assist in learning and remembering information; they should also be given enough time to finish their work as they may be understandably slow. Smartphones and personal computers can also be used to make work easier and faster.
It is clear that more scientific study and research should be done to answer questions such as what are the effects of drugs on the frontal lobes of users and how can an addict’s brain be made to unlearn dependency and addiction?
References
Hyman, S. (2007). Addiction: A Disease of Learning and Memory. FOCUS , 5 (2), 220-228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/foc.5.2.foc220
Handbook of Implicit Cognition and Addiction. (2007). Addiction , 102 (6), 1005-1005. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2007.01865.x
Introduction to Addictive Behaviours. (2007). Addiction , 102 (5), 831-831. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2007.01815.x
