Chance or predisposition?
Drug addiction, I always thought only happened to others. I only became a drug addict later, around 35, when I had never used anything, neither alcohol nor drugs. All the substances without exception frightened me by their capacity to inflict a loss of control, synonymous with hell for the great anxiety that I was. As it was out of the question for me to consume it, I was forever spare from addiction.
So, I was unsuspecting when my family doctor prescribed me benzodiazepines to treat a panic disorder that was making my life miserable at an alcohol rehab near me. If he had informed me that this tiny white pill had the same effect on the brain as alcohol, I might have thought twice rather than once before throwing myself headlong into the abyss of the drug therapy at the rehab centers near me.
So, I was unsuspecting when my family doctor prescribed me benzodiazepines to treat a panic disorder that was making my life miserable at an alcohol rehab near me. If he had informed me that this tiny white pill had the same effect on the brain as alcohol, I might have thought twice rather than once before throwing myself headlong into the abyss of the drug therapy at the rehab centers near me.
The rat: a mammalian model of man
Pier Vincenzo Piazza, a psychiatrist, neurobiologist, and addiction specialist in France, is particularly interested in the mechanisms that lead to addiction. According to him, “addiction is not just about taking drugs but about compulsive consumption that maintains despite the harmful consequences. This behavior appears only in a small proportion of consumers (15-20%) and has the characteristics of chronic disease, since relapse, even after prolonged periods of withdrawal, is almost the rule (around 90%).
The rat is the animal of choice for studying the principles of drug addiction, as it exhibits strikingly similar behavior to humans. For three months in 2004, Piazza and his team of researchers observed the consumption patterns of about 100 rats trained to self-administer cocaine.
Of rats and men… drug addicts
Thus, of all the cocaine-consuming rats, 17% were “addicted” and shows signs of drug addiction from the second or third month of cocaine self-administration. In a rehabs in parkersburg wv user’s drug addiction would therefore not only be triggered by his prolonged exposure to drugs, which remains an aggravating factor, but also by his degree of personal vulnerability. The drug addict’s brain would therefore be predisposed to develop addictive behaviors.
During this study, three behaviors considered as criteria for the diagnosis of addiction in humans (according to the DSMIV, the main diagnostic manual in psychiatry) were evaluated on several occasions:
Difficulty stopping or limiting consumption
This difficulty was tested by counting the rats’ requests for cocaine during periods of enforced abstinence. If he had informed me that this tiny white pill had the same effect on the brain as alcohol, I might have thought twice rather than once before throwing myself headlong into the abyss of the drug therapy at the If he had informed me that this tiny white pill had the same effect on the brain as alcohol, I might have thought twice rather than once before throwing myself headlong into the abyss of the drug therapy at the
High motivation for drug seeking and use
The motivation of the rats was tested by counting the requests they made to receive drugs. If he had informed me that this tiny white pill had the same effect on the brain as alcohol, I might have thought twice rather than once before throwing myself headlong into the abyss of the drug therapy at the
