Neurobiology is the study of nervous system cells and their organization into the functional circuits that process information and mediate behavior. Neurobiology is different from neuroscience, since neuroscience is much broader and looks at the study of the nervous system generally. Neurobiology focuses on the study of neurons, which are cells that are specialized to receive, propagate and transmit electrochemical impulses. Scientist have identified that in the human brain alone, there are over hundred billion neurons.
Is there any relationship between Abuse, Addiction and Dependency?
There can actually be argued that all these are related in one way or the other. In this case, the main condition which can be triggered by all the others is addiction. For instance, when a person develops a chemical dependency, it becomes impossible for the person to survive without taking the drug. This makes the person to make the drug part of his/her life. The prolonged usage of this drug will eventually result into addiction of the person by the drug.
On the other hand, looking at what abuse is, it is the usage of drug for a purpose other than the intended use of the substance. It can also be defined as the improper usage of a drug, whereby if it was a prescription drug, the patient uses it the wrong way and not the way the doctor recommended. This may result to drug resistance and thus the person will be required to use higher amount of the same drug if in future it is to produce the equivalent effects as before. This with time results to addiction to the drug and consequently the person will not be able to live without the drug.
How do drugs work in the human brain?
Most addictive drugs work by altering the way the brain works. The effect of the drugs that addicts look for (especially stimulants) occurs by alterations in the brain to trigger pleasure. One drugs get into the brain, they tap into the brain’s communication system. Once they are inside the brain’s communication system, they disrupt the way nerve cells normally send, receive and process information. The following are the ways through which the drugs work in the brain;
- Imitation of the natural transmitters – natural transmitters are the chemical messengers in the brain. Due to the similarity in the chemical structure between drugs and these neurotransmitters, the drugs are able to false fully activate the nerve systems and hence make them send abnormal messages through their network.
- Overstimulation of the reward system – this occurs by flooding the circuit with dopamine., which is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, motivation and general feelings of pleasure in the body. Almost all the drugs abused are able to activate this system, especially the stimulants. This is why the users of such drugs frequently want to use them due to the pleasure they get from the drugs’ use.
How does the process of addiction entail?
Drug addiction is not something that happens overnight. It is a process that relatively takes a long period before a person becomes an addict. This period will though vary from person to the other. The common changes that will occur in the human brain before addiction occurs are discussed below.
- Brain adaptation – with time, the brain adjusts to the surges in dopamine by decreasing the number of dopamine receptors available. This will reduce the functioning of the reward system circuit. This results to the drug user having now to take higher amounts of the drug substance in order to attain the effect they could easily attain before after just taking a little of the drug substance. This effect is the one termed a tolerance, and the drug user at this stage is said to be tolerant to the drug.
- Other than the dopamine, there will be other changes in the brain – the prolonged abuse of drug substances lead to damage in the brain chemical system, including glutamate and the neurotransmitter that influences the reward system circuits and also the ability to learn. Impairment in the brain can occur sometimes, especially when the optimal concentration of glutamate is altered by the drug abuse.
- Trigger of conscious memory systems- the abuse of drugs can trigger the conscious memory systems. From psychology, conditioning is a way of learning. In this case, the environmental cues such as certain people and places may become associated with the drug and hence trigger uncontrollable cravings if the individual is exposed to these cues, even when the drug itself is not available.
- Addiction – this is actually the step in which almost all the other alterations in the brain leads to. The brain imaging studies of drug addicted persons have indicated that changes in the areas of brain that are critical to judgment, decision making , learning and memory and also behavior control. This seeks to explain why addiction occurs, since these changes are likely what drive the drug abusers to seek out and take drugs compulsively, even when they have negative effects on their bodies.
Finally, I wish to remind you that addiction is curable and you just need to seek the qualified professional to help you out in the recovery process.
Is there any relationship between Abuse, Addiction and Dependency?
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