Health Psychology: Substance Misuse

• Study of how our mental and physical health can be assessed.
• Develops understanding of what causes bad/good health from cognitive, social, biological approaches as health is a state of mental, physical and social well-being.
• Health Psychologists use this to promote good health.
• E.G: They investigate biological causes for substance misuse, such as genetic predisposition, and the physical action of drugs in the brain.

• Intake of drugs in quantites that are potentially damaging to physical or mental health.
• E.G: nicotine and alcohol. Interference in school and family could lead to harder drugs.

• Tiny gaps between neurons that neurotransmitters pass across, enabling chemical communication between neurons.

• A feeling of satisfaction and a drive that results in an individual having to carry on taking drugs to produce continuous pleasure.
• Drug taking becomes central to the users life therefore making withdrawal difficult to maintain due to habit.

• A compulsion to keep taking drugs due to a change in the neurochemistry of the brain which substitutes normal bodily functions resulting in the body needing to continue taking the drugs in order to feel normal.
• User experiences both tolerance and withdrawal symptoms.

• When individual is physically dependent on drugs and has to take increasing amounts to feel the effects they experienced when they first took the drug.
• It occurs with mant drugs including heroine, cocaine and alcohol.
• It can be a result of down regulation (decrease of number/sensitivity of receptors) OR an increase in enzymes in the liver which break the drug molecules down.

COGNITIVE: Receives positive information of substance and the benefits from it.

SOCIAL: Social Identity Theory - ingroup rake substances. peer pressure of group, parents behaviours/beliefs.

BIOLOGICAL: Nature - inherit addictive personality. Nurture - mother takes drugs the child becomes dependent on drugs too.

COGNITIVE: CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) - change the way people think of something, from positive to negative thoughts.

SOCIAL: change ingroup.

BIOLOGICAL: detox - small amounts of drugs given to individual. Drug replacement.

COGNITIVE: educated about the negative side effects of drugs to prevent consumption.

SOCIAL: selective of who joins ingroup/what ingroup to join.

BIOLOGICAL: N/A

• Prescribed - Medically required.
• Psychoactive - Taken recreationally for their mind altering effects.

• Unpleasant physical effects experienced by a physically dependent drug user as the effects of a drug wear off.
• Withdrawal symptoms are generally the opposite of the effects of the drug and can include vomiting, shaking, depression and headaches.