substance abuse and addiction

Substance abuse and addiction are difficult conditions to treat successfully. For example, the 12-month relapse rate among alcoholics is more than 60% and nearly 75% for smokers and heroin users. One possible reason for treatment failure is how addictive substances affect the brain. Most addictive drugs appear to tap into the brain’s reward circuit so that any behavior (taking a drug) preceding the psychological experience of reward is strongly reinforced. If addiction is a product of brain activity, it is logical that the treatment also must involve some change in brain activity. There are several forms of biologically-based drug treatments, including agonist drugs that mimic some of the addictive drugs’ effects (e.g. methadone for heroin addiction) and other substances that alter activity in the reward system (such as Baclofen).

Watch this TEDMED Talk by Neuroscientist Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the NIH, on .

Then answer the questions below.

• Describe the neurobiology of substance abuse and addiction.
• Provide an analysis of the extent to which addiction to psychoactive drugs is biological versus psychological.
• Support or refute the practice of using drug therapies for treating addiction. Be sure you are including current supportive research in your reply.
• Include in your argument above a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of relying on drug therapy to treat addiction.

Use the APUS Online Library, Google Scholar, or any free academic or research database to research information on a drug for treating a neurological or psychiatric disorder. If you cannot find material on the drug you select in the Library, you may use other credible online sources. Any additional sources used must be websites with scientifically grounded information.

**Remember, formal citation of information in the discussions is optional. However, you are encouraged to use APA formatting as it is good practice. At a minimum, you must at least acknowledge sources you used to support your answer. Avoid using pharmaceutical sites as your only source of information; while they may look scientific, they are maintained by companies selling medications. Also avoid sources like WebMD, Wikipedia, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Verywell Mind, Psychology Today, Simply Psychology, Parent’s Day, news articles, op-eds, blogs, and encyclopedias as they are not scholarly sources. When in doubt, ask your professor if it is an acceptable source. In scholarly sources, the research and information are either reviewed by an editorial team (such as for the Harvard Business Review) or a group of scholar peers (such as in peer-reviewed journals ). The sources you use must be within five years or newer.