Neurobiology Paper

 

Introduction

Neurobiology is the study of cells that make up the nervous system and organizing those cells into a functional circuit that is responsible for processing information and mediating behavior. Neurobiology is a subdiscipline of biology and neuroscience. Neurobiology plays an important role when it comes to creating and sustaining addiction. There are controversies on whether addiction is a result of pathological neurobiological disorder or a brain dynamic that manifests itself in an addicted behavior. In both addictions has been with changes taking place in the brain. Understanding the role neurobiology plays in creating and sustaining addiction is important because it helps in developing new strategies for behavioral and pharmacological treatments, it helps reduce the stigma, shame, guilt and anger experienced by patients and families, lastly it helps shed light on the big question, what is addiction? This document pertains information on how the brain influences one to use substances and later resulting to substance disorder and addictions.

Addiction is a primary neurologic disorder, both addiction and Parkinson’s are diseases of dopamine deficiency. It is termed as a primary neurologic disorder since it is not as a result of something else such as depression, anxiety or a bipolar disorder. It is always difficult to differentiate between primary vs substance abused disorder which is secondary and can be regarded as a psychiatric disorder.  A survey done in the US has revealed that 85-90% of the adult population uses alcohol or any other substance that can alter their mood at any given time and 10-12% of these people have a substance abuse disorder.  Children born of alcoholics have a high chance of becoming alcoholics regardless of who parents them. Bad parenting does not make children addicts and being good parents cannot fix an addiction.  Genetics account for 50-60% vulnerability for addiction (Abuse, S., US, M. H. S. A., & Office of the Surgeon General US, 2016). Neurological and biological factors of an individual has something to do with genetics.

Drugs share the same brain reward pathway with food, water, sex and children rearing. When there is repeated exposure to drug abuse the results are a blunted response to the everyday activities and the normal drives of hierarchy is disrupted and replaced with new priorities and the concerns of obtaining and using drugs. When one abuses a drug there are two permanent changes that occur. These changes are called neuroadaptation. As discussed, earlier addiction is as a result of dopamine deficiency, low levels of dopamine bring about an unpleasant feeling, depression and lack of motivation which leads to the urge of taking a drug in order to feel better.  The more the reward circuit is exposed to the substance the more it becomes blunted and the more the person loses the ability to control the need they have for that drug, the memory of the pleasure brought about by the drug becomes more powerful than the drug itself and then frontal brain region that is responsible for exerting inhibitory control over the desire and emotions is affected.  Persistent use of drugs can reshape neuropathways thus accounting for the formation and persistence of drugs stimulus association (Abuse, S., US, M. H. S. A., & Office of the Surgeon General US, 2016).

Addiction when scientifically analyzed it shows signs such as those of asthma, and diabetes. All are chronic and are subject to relapse at times they are controlled or influenced by genetics, social and environmental factors. Individual suffering from any of the three disorders often find it difficult to keep up with treatment. Substance abuse is characterized by impaired control over its use, users being preoccupied most of the time with its use despite the adverse consequences brought forth. Extensive research carried out has revealed that addiction is caused by changes taking place in the brains (Abuse, S., US, M. H. S. A., & Office of the Surgeon General US, 2016). The research carried out has lead to important discoveries of effective medication that can be used to treat substance abuse disorder.   

Research conducted has revealed that addiction as a process has three stages. The first stage is intoxication, the second stage is withdrawal and the third stage is anticipation. The more a person continues to abuse a substance the more the cycle continues to be severe thus resulting to dramatic changes in the brain functionality and hence reducing one’s ability to have control over the substance abuse (Abuse, S., US, M. H. S. A., & Office of the Surgeon General US, 2016). There are three areas of the brain that are affected and mostly during onset, development and maintenance of the substance abuse disorder. These three parts of the brain are basal ganglia, prefrontal cortex and extended amygdala.

Early life experience that took place in childhood or adolescence can be responsible in setting up a stage for future substance abuse leading to addiction. Stressors experienced during childhood include emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and being raised up by parents who abused substance or parents that were in and out of rehab (Abuse, S., US, M. H. S. A., & Office of the Surgeon General US, 2016). This explains why these young adults are at as risk of increased addiction and when they experiment with substances that are likely to lead to addiction their brains undergo significant changes that leave it vulnerable to substance abuse disorder.

Neuroscience is an emerging force in counselling.  Neuroscience explores how the brain controls behavior and various answers and how the brain reacts to things such as mental illness, trauma and abuse of substance. Neurocounselling has now been integrated into counselling. It has been used for psychoeducation counseling which involves helping patients and their families understand how their brain and nervous system are affected by substance abuse. They help the patients come to an understanding of how their behavior is influenced by their brains (Busacca, Sikorski, & McHenry, 2015).

Conclusion

 Neurobiology plays an important role in creating and sustaining addiction. Addiction is a reoccurring brain disorder.  Science has been able to revolutionize people’s understanding concerning addiction. There are three areas of the brain that are affected during addiction. Early life experiences can be responsible for causing addiction, these experiences may be as a result of stressors that were experienced during that stage of life. Neurocounseling has enabled psychoeducation counseling which helps in explaining to patients and their families how the brain influences their behavior of substance abuse which resulted to addiction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Abuse, S., US, M. H. S. A., & Office of the Surgeon General (US. (2016). The Neurobiology of   Substance Use, Misuse, and Addiction.

Busacca, L. A., Sikorski, A. M., & McHenry, B. (2015). Infusing neuroscience within counselor training: A rationale for an integrally-informed model. Journal of Counselor    Practice, 6(1), 39-55.