PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF ADDICTION-THE REAL REASON BEHIND ADDICTION

         NEUROCHEMISTRY/PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF ADDICTION

        Hello and welcome to my blog yet again. Today, we will talk about the pathophysiology of addiction.

        The human body is based on the pleasure principle. It finds opportunity to find happiness wherever it can, and tries to minimize pains. This was first stated by Sigmund freud.

This sense of pleasure is chiefly experienced due to the release of a special chemical in the brain, (called neurotransmitter),which is DOPAMINE.

DOPAMINE is a neurotransmitter, which helps a person to experience happiness, motivation, satisfaction, satiety, sexual gratification, arousal etc. hence, a person feels these emotions in presence of this neurochemical.

SEROTONIN is another neurotransmitter which also is responsible for happiness. But it seems to have slight inhibitory action of dopamine. Moreover, serotonin is also responsible for calmness and sleep.

Thus, from the above explaination we see that both have a bit contrast effects, i.e. one is excitatory(which excites and stimulates the nervous system)  in nature(dopamine), other is a bit inhibitory( which inducines reduction in activity/modulates any activity) in nature(serotonin).

When a person indulges in any addictive agents like cocaine or amphetamine, dopamine levels in the brain rises significantly which alleviates a persons mood. Once, the effect of the narcotic agent reduces, serotonin in the brains gains the upper hand and dopamine levels also drop comparatively. This leads to a so-called temporary mood drop. Due to this effect, an addict again craves the narcotic agent, because here the pleasure principle comes in play and so again indulges in the narcotic intake.  Gradually, when this process is repeated and the person gets involved in repeated abuse of addictive agents, the dopamine levels flood the brain, and finally the serotonin levels, which put a brake to the excessive dopamine effect, also drop. This causes a sense of prolonged euphoria. Gradually as years pass the nervous system gets used to/immune this level of narcotic intake due to which the threshold of the dopamine release, or in other words the amount of the drug required to stimulate dopamine release goes up, due to which dopamine release requires more quantity of the agent to get stimulated. Finally, this leads to increase in the  craving of the addictive agent in a higher proportion to stimulate dopamine release and also for “GETTING ON A HIGH”. By now, the levels of serotonin drop to minimum. Now, when a person is not able to get the timely dose of the agent the dopamine levels also drop to much extent and also due to repeated drug use serotonin secretion is also suppressed. This leads to depressive spells, suicidal thoughts, lack of motivation, exhaustion, sometimes muscle twitching and spasms etc.

These effects however can now only be reduced by rehabilitations in rehabilitation centre which gradually help the addict to withdraw from the addiction and also improving and balancing dopamine-serotonin imbalances by proper conditioning of the brain with the help of various conditioning exercises. Thus, a person may be able to get completely rid of this habit and improve his life.