Those between ages 18 and 25 are also at great risk, while their brains mature. In fact, 9 out of 10 people who are battling substance addiction started using before their 18 th birthday. Science has helped explain exactly how drug abuse affects people, and how addiction comes to be, over time. It all starts with prolonged drug use.
When a person uses drug repeatedly, it changes how the brain functions. Over time, the drug use becomes compulsive, not recreational or voluntary. It is no longer a choice to use drugs — it is no longer in their control. How is this, exactly? This results in a euphoric bodily response and mental state, in which the user feels good or high.
When the brain experiences this repeatedly, it becomes reliant on that feel-good behavior. These are physical changes that take place. Even when the drugs stop producing pleasure for a user which happens over time, when a user becomes tolerant on them , the brain continues pushing this need. Thus, acting on these cravings i. These physical changes make drug use even harder to quit, as a person loses their ability to make rational decisions and control impulses.
Although drug addiction creates physical and chronic changes in the brain, there is good news. The brain can be re-wired again. Eventually, the desire for the drug becomes more important than the actual pleasure it provides.
And because dopamine plays a key role in learning and memory, it hardwires the need for the addictive substance or experience into the brain, along with any environmental cues associated with it — people, places, things and situations associated with past use.
These memories become so entwined that even walking into a bar years later, or talking to the same friends an individual had previously binged with, may then trigger an alcoholic's cravings, Morikawa said.
Brain-imaging studies of people with addiction reveal other striking changes as well. For example, people with alcohol-, cocaine- or opioid-use disorders show a loss in neurons and impaired activity in their prefrontal cortex, according to a review of studies published in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
This erodes their ability to make sound decisions and regulate their impulses. Some people are more susceptible to these extreme neurobiological changes than others, and therefore more susceptible to addiction. Not everyone who tries a cigarette or gets morphine after a surgery becomes addicted to drugs. Similarly, not everyone who gambles becomes addicted to gambling. Many factors influence the development of addictions, Boyle said, from genetics, to poor social support networks, to the experience of trauma or other co-occurring mental illnesses.
One of the biggest risk factors is age. In fact, a federal study from found that the majority 74 percent of to year-olds admitted to treatment programs had started using drugs at age 17 or younger. Additionally, like most behavioral and mental health disorders, there are many genes that add to a person's level of risk or provide some protection against addiction, Boyle said.
But unlike the way in which doctors can predict a person's risk of breast cancer by looking for mutations in a certain gene , nobody knows enough to be able to single out any gene or predict the likelihood of inheriting traits that could lead to addiction, she said.
As a person continues to use drugs, the brain adapts by reducing the ability of cells in the reward circuit to respond to it. This reduces the high that the person feels compared to the high they felt when first taking the drug—an effect known as tolerance. They might take more of the drug to try and achieve the same high. These brain adaptations often lead to the person becoming less and less able to derive pleasure from other things they once enjoyed, like food, sex, or social activities.
Long-term use also causes changes in other brain chemical systems and circuits as well, affecting functions that include:. Despite being aware of these harmful outcomes, many people who use drugs continue to take them, which is the nature of addiction. No one factor can predict if a person will become addicted to drugs. A combination of factors influences risk for addiction. The more risk factors a person has, the greater the chance that taking drugs can lead to addiction.
For example:. However, addiction is treatable and can be successfully managed. People who are recovering from an addiction will be at risk for relapse for years and possibly for their whole lives. Research shows that combining addiction treatment medicines with behavioral therapy ensures the best chance of success for most patients. More good news is that drug use and addiction are preventable.
Results from NIDA-funded research have shown that prevention programs involving families, schools, communities, and the media are effective for preventing or reducing drug use and addiction.
Although personal events and cultural factors affect drug use trends, when young people view drug use as harmful, they tend to decrease their drug taking.
0コメント