Dopamine

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Dopamine

AdvantagesGetting Started

  • Volkow gave a drug called Ritalin to healthy volunteers and correlated their subjective experience of the drug with the density of dopamine receptors in their mesolimbic dopamine systems. Those that reported pleasurable feelings with Ritalin had fewer dopamine receptors than those that hated its effects.

Disadvantages

  • One issue with this theory is that dopamine alone is not a sufficient explanation of all addiction. For a start, not every addiction has been found to affect dopamine levels. It is unclear how well this theory can explain behavioural addiction. The majority of research in this area has focused on substance abuse, with gambling being the only behaviour with a reasonable body of research behind it. How well the dopamine theory can explain other behavioural addictions such as sex, internet gaming or exercise remains to be seen.
  • Volkow (2003) stated that it is likely that there is a complex interaction between an individual's specific environment and whether or not dopamine sensitivity leads to addiction. A stimulating environment may provide enough dopamine reward to protect people from addiction, whereas a dull or boring environment may not.
  • An important point to note is that neurochemical explanations for addiction (e.g. the dopamine model) ignore social and environmental factors that may also contribute to addictive behaviour. Grant et al (1998) found that animals that lost social status also lost dopamine receptors, and therefore offers a possible explanation for social-class based addictions (e.g. smoking in lower socio-economic groups).

Evaluation

This theory also does not explain what caused the person to engage in the addictive behaviour in the first place. Dopamine can provide a good explanation as to why the addiction is maintained, particularly the effects of tolerance; however, dopamine cannot explain what caused the person to engage in the addictive behaviour in the first place. What caused the smoker to try their first cigarette? What caused the heroin addict to “shoot up” for the first time? Dopamine, once again, may be an insufficient explanation.

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