The biopsychosocial model of addiction emphasizes the interplay of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors in the understanding, prevention, and treatment of substance use disorders. This model challenges the traditional biomedical approach, which reduces addiction solely to biochemical causes and often overlooks the significant roles of psychological and sociocultural influences. It asserts that addressing a combination of these factors is essential for effective recovery and presents a more holistic view of addiction that aligns with contemporary research findings. Addiction is a complex and multifaceted condition that impacts individuals and their families on multiple levels. While the stereotypical image of addiction might involve a person misusing substances like alcohol or drugs, addictive behaviours extend beyond substances and include activities such as gambling, internet use, and even food consumption. Understanding addiction requires a comprehensive approach that considers biological, psychological, and social factors—known collectively as the biopsychosocial model (Masiak, 2013).
- So I had asked the doctor who was running the clinic at the time, to allow me to stay at the clinic.
- They support continued use and reinforce denial that a problem with alcohol or drugs exists.
- Many pieces, including cultural norms, social circles, situations, personality, biology, and even beliefs, fit together.
- This is a radical departure from the traditional positivist epistemology, which relies on empirical study and material proof (Bunge 1979; Heylighen, Cilliers, and Gerschenson 2007).
Shared decision-making
A systems approach allows for the inclusion of psycho-social and socially systemic explanations of addiction, which extend well beyond neurobiology while still interacting with it (Bunge 1991). Guiding an individual’s behaviour are brain processes, somatic mechanisms, the ethical rules and norms that govern society, and the nature of the interaction. The complex combination of biological, psycho-social and systemic factors may explain why it is so difficult for some individuals to refuse drugs in the face of increasingly negative consequences.
Finding Alternatives to Drug Cultures
- In this paper we use the term “substance use disorder” or “addiction” to refer to both the complex nature of severe substance dependence and substance abuse.
- In one study comparing cannabis use in San Francisco (where cannabis is criminalized) and Amsterdam (de facto decriminalization), there was no evidence to support claims that criminalization laws reduce use or that decriminalization increases use.
- Reflecting on these concerns, the authors stated “we had to be clear in our ethics applications and in our informed consent process with participants that HAT will not be available outside the context of the study” (p. 267).
- Understanding addiction requires a comprehensive approach that considers biological, psychological, and social factors—known collectively as the biopsychosocial model (Masiak, 2013).
- The model attributes key role to biological determinants and explains disease as a condition caused by external pathogens or disorders in the functions of organs and body systems.
It’s like trying to describe an elephant by touching only its trunk or its tail. Although there is no “addiction gene” to definitively identify a person as being at risk for addiction, it is evident through twin studies, adoption studies, family studies, and more recently, epigenetic studies that addiction has a genetic component. Individuals who are genetically predisposed for addiction enter the world with a greater risk of becoming addicted at some point in their lives. “I had kind of graduated out of the hub, however I did not have good enough insurance to cover my Suboxone at that time. So I had asked the doctor who was running the clinic at the time, to allow me to stay at the clinic.
Consequences of Impaired Cognitive Control
If patients were eligible and interested in completing the interview, the research team member reviewed and obtained verbal consent and conducted a brief demographic screening and the semi-structured interview. Opioid related overdoses in the US are a national epidemic 1 and are increasing in rural areas in Vermont, California, Connecticut, Maryland, New York, North Dakota, North Carolina, and Virginia 2. Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) – methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone – have strong evidence for effectiveness 3.
Brain Chemistry
From a neuroscience perspective, it is difficult to see such actions as completely free, particularly when explanations of natural phenomena are understood as causally ordered. The notion of free choice becomes particularly troublesome due to the conscious experience of acting freely. As Searle (2004) argues, “there is a striking difference between the passive character of perceptual consciousness and the active character of what we might call ‘volitional consciousness’“ (41).
Demographics were uploaded to Excel and analysed descriptively using frequencies and mean. Transcribed interviews were uploaded to qualitative coding software (Atlas.ti, v8.4) 25 within one week of their completion. Two interviewers independently reviewed and de-identified transcripts and used directed content analysis 26, 27 based on the interview questions to code patterns and divergent perspectives surrounding patient experiences of rural MOUD care. Reviewers met weekly to enhance confirmability of findings and achieve inter-rater reliability, and reviewed findings with the other authors. Once enrolled, participants were asked general questions about their sex, race, gender, ethnicity, and treatment history.
We examine heroin-assisted treatment as an applied case example within our framework. We conclude with a discussion of the model and its implications for drug policy, research, addiction health care systems and delivery, and treatment of substance use problems. Previous research has also shown strong associations between medical, educational, and mental health services and substance use treatment retention. Improvement of post treatment outcomes has also been noted when treatment consists of wrap-around services such as basic needs, childcare, and family 40.
Due to the sample profile of all White English-speaking individuals, this precluded exploration of perspectives informed by experience of receiving MOUD care delivered in an unfamiliar language and cultural context. All study participants received care in Vermont, a state where 94% of the population identifies as White 50. The lack of racial or ethnic diversity among participants precluded exploration of perspectives informed by experience of racial or ethnic discrimination in health care. Additionally, participants may have been more stable and therefore more likely to have had a positive experience in MOUD given their choice to participate in these interviews, and these may not be generalizable to the experiences of MOUD patients more broadly.
2.1. Personality Factors and Addiction
Mental health conditions like depression and anxiety are often both causes and effects of substance abuse. A supportive family can be a powerful force for recovery, but dysfunctional family relationships can contribute to the development and maintenance of addiction. It’s like a garden – the right environment can help a person flourish, but a toxic one can stunt growth and foster disease. Before the biopsychosocial model, addiction was often viewed through a single lens – be it purely biological, psychological, or social. These Models of Addiction provided valuable insights but failed to capture the full picture.
Disorders
Beginning with Becker’s (1953) seminal work, research has shown that many commonly abused substances are not automatically experienced as pleasurable by people who use them for the first time (Fekjaer 1994). For instance, many people find the taste of alcoholic beverages disagreeable during their first experience with them, and they only learn to experience these effects as pleasurable over time. Expectations can also be important among people who use drugs; those who have greater expectancies of pleasure typically have a more https://yourhealthmagazine.net/article/addiction/sober-houses-rules-that-you-should-follow/ intense and pleasurable experience. These expectancies may play a part in the development of substance use disorders (Fekjaer 1994; Leventhal and Schmitz 2006).
As White (1996) notes, the drug culture teaches the new user “how to recognize and enjoy drug effects” (p. 46). There are also practical matters involved in using substances (e.g., how much to take, how to ingest the substance for strongest effect) that people new to drug use may not know when they first begin to experiment with drugs. Substance users, loved ones, and treatment providers need to realize that significant lifestyle changes are frequently required to replace the culture of addiction with a culture of recovery. In the following passage, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shares its insights into the role of drug cultures. A significant factor in the development and maintenance of addictive behavior is the context in which the behavior occurs. Drug-using rituals are often an ingrained part of life for people with substance use disorders.
An underlying feature of these interacting systems is Sober House Rules: What You Should Know Before Moving In the human subjective experience of free voluntary actions, which problematizes laws within the natural world that every event has a cause with causally sufficient explanations. Every learned action, whether pro-social or anti-social, may be prompted by social conditions such as a lack of resources, conflict, social norms, peer pressure, an underlying drive (e.g., hunger, sex, craving), or a combination of these factors (Bunge 1997). Addiction-related behaviours affect the health of both individuals and communities, either protectively or harmfully.