Compulsive drug use can be easily distinguished from casual drug use, yet scientists do not understand how this transition from casual to compulsive use takes place in individuals.
Compulsive drug use can be easily distinguished from casual drug use, yet scientists do not understand how this transition from casual to compulsive use takes place in individuals.
Professor Barry Everitt from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Experimental Psychology has recently published a study with colleague Louk Vanderschuren from the University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands, to explore how this transition takes place. It is hoped it will help scientists identify new treatments for drug use.
Compulsive drug users or addicts can be distinguished by drug-dominated, inflexible behaviour, this causes them to be unable to shift their behaviour away from drug use and drug-related activities. Even when aware of negative situations surrounding drug use, addicts have an enormous difficulty abstaining from drug seeking and use.
The study focused on the inability of addicts to stop using drugs in spite of the negative impact of their behaviour. The study concluded that with prolonged self-administration of drugs, drug addicts are more likely to seek and take drugs despite adverse conditions when obtaining the drugs.
The study was published in the August 13 issue of Science magazine.
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