Dopamine Nation (Ch 1-5)

Addiction

continued and compulsive consumption of a substance or behavior despite its harm to self and/or others

Dopamine economy (limbic capitalism)

increased access to drug numbers, variety, and potency as technology improves

polypharmacy

using multiple drugs simultaneously or in close proximity

Max

example of polypharmacy; using multiple drugs at once

deaths of despair

deaths of middle-aged white Americans without a college degree, dying earlier than their grandparents due to drug overdoses, alcohol, suicides

David

ADD and GAD, on Adderall to study, but grew dependent

• engineering —> history because of anxiety

high dopamine substances

trigger the release of dopamine

opponent-process theory

any prolonged or repeated departures from hedonic or affective neutrality have a cost

• what goes up must come down

• ex. color processing

neuroadaptation

with repeated exposure to the same or similar pleasure stimulus, the initial deviation to the side of pleasure gets weaker and shorter

tolerance

needing more of a substance to feel pleasure or experiencing less pleasure at a given dose

opioid-induced hyperalgesia

exposure to opioids resets brains pleasure-pain balance to side of pain

• original pain is worse, and there is new pain develpoment in areas that used to be pain free

hedonism vs anhedonia

pursuit of pleasure vs inability to enjoy pleasure of any kind

cue-dependent learning

• classical pavlovian conditioning

• dopamine released in brain in response to conditioned cue

loss chasing

the more you lose, the more you want to play

experience-dependent plasticity

branches off of neuron (dendrites) become longer and more numerous in response to high-dopamine rewards

• changes that can last a lifetime and persist long after drug use

optogenics

a biological technique that involves the use of light to control neurons

• reverses synaptic brain changes caused by cocaine

D

data

O

objective (or goal)

P

problems

• related to use

A

abstinence

M

mindfulness

I

insight

N

next steps

E

experiment

abstinence violation effect

for people with severe addiction, precipitous escalation in use after a period of abstinence

self-binding

people willingly and intentionally create barriers between themselves and their drug of choice

Physical Strategies

creating space or physical distance

• can also aply to surgeries

Chronological Strategies

Time limits and finish lines

Categorical Strategies

limits consumption by sorting dopamine into different categories

• Jacob covering up naked bodies

• deifying the demonized

Oscar

physical strategies

• alcohol

Delay discounting

value of a reward goes down the longer we have to wait for it

• high-dopamine goods mess with our ability to delay gratification