PSYC 2280 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Aversion Therapy, Naltrexone, Contingency Management
22 Mar 2016
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Alcoholism: some evidence found for men but not for women yet (twin and adopion) Probably inheriing a vulnerability to experience pleasure from substance use. One geneic factor is ability to metabolize alcohol: liver enzyme called adh breaks down acetaldehyde; build up causes illness. Antabuse: disuliram chemically prevents breakdown, making people get sick when they drink alcohol. Lack of adh thought to cause skin lushing and low rates of alcohol in asian populaion. Neurobiological inluences: posiive and negaive reinforcement (goal to make behaviour more likely) Alcohol has anxiolyic efect; lowers anxiety through the gaba neurotransmiter system. Olds & milner (1954) study on electrical simulaion of rats" brains; in human, dopaminergic system and its opioid-releasing neurons implicated (midbrain ventral tegmental area --> through nucleus accumbens --> frontal cortex) Direct (ex. cocaine, amphetamines) or indirect efects on system. Sensiizaion: repeated exposure to simulants leads to increased dopamine release. Posiive reinforcement: substanial diferences in experience of diference drugs, but they all cause pleasurable efects.
