Biological Interventions (addiction)

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  • Created by: Charlie
  • Created on: 27-03-13 15:07
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  • Biological Interventions
    • NRT - these are devices such as gum and patches that help relieve the symptoms associated with withdrawl from nicotine.
      • They also provide postive reinforcment because they have stress reliving effects.Nasal spray gives an instant hit of nicotine but the patches release it overtime, so the addict no longer craves an acutal cigarette and this does bot require much postive reinforcment.
        • These drugs seem to desensitize the brains nicotine receptors, meaning that smoking an actual cigarette which has has more nicotine in it can be quite distatisfying. However they do not target any assosations that the smoker has, they only treat the biological addiction.
    • Bupropion
      • This is an antidpressant drug increase dopamine and norepinphrine in the brain and is thought to actully reduce the amount of nicotine receptors making the person taking this drug less likley to crave a cigarette. It reduces the pleasureble feeling, as the brain no longer craves nicotine. Watts found this method to be reasonably successful in treating smoking addicts.
    • champix
      • Works in the same way as burpropion, but has been found to be suoerior in help people stop smoking.
    • evalulation
      • NRT delivers nicotine at a much slower pace into the blood steam then a cigerette would this may cause a smoker to relapse.
      • Through nicotine is seen as being a much more healthy alternative to smoking, it still has health draw backs such as increased blood pressure and heart rate.
      • assumes that addiction is a disease and a postive of this is that is that the indivdual can't be blamed.  However this is determinstic as it does not take in to account free will.
      • It has been shown through psyhcological interventions, that people can change their addictive habits on without the use of drugs

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