Processes Within Drug Addiction

Processes within drug addiction
Psychology
Word count: 600
27/09/11

Dependences of many kinds present themselves in human beings, but there is one nowadays that steals the show for all othersand that is the drug addiction. According to the National Institute on drug abuse (2011), drug addiction is a brain disease characterized by extreme craving, seeking and obviously use of thesubstance. A research conducted by Volkow N., Fowler J., Wang G. & Goldstein R. in 2002 made identifications on different processes composing the disease of substance dependency: intoxication, withdrawaland craving. Also this study established correlations between the production, release and reception of dopamine and this drug addiction processes. The drug addiction is a process itself, and it iscomposed of other processes that become a loop and will construct the relapsing nature of the disease, making it an addiction. The fact it is an addiction comes from the repeating nature of this processesthat will get to the point of passing over the user’s head.
The first process of drug addiction is intoxication. After consumption, the substance ingested will release its effects. According to theWorld Health Organization (2011) intoxication is a condition that disturbs levels of consciousness as well as other psychological and physical functions. This means that after the drug isadministered, the mind and body will both suffer alterations. Drugs often cause the increased or decreased releasing of different hormones causing behavioral modifications and reactions in the brain anddepending on the substance, other structures of the body. Each drug, depending on the amount consumed has different durations and after the time has passed along with the effects, the user goes into the nextprocess which is withdrawal.
Withdrawal syndrome can be defined simply as the group of physical, emotional and behavioral changes that occur in a user after the drug’s effect or consumption has...