Biological Models Of Addiction Essay

Addiction is the continued use of a mood altering substance or behavior despite adverse dependency consequences, or a neurological impairment leading to such behaviors. Addictions can include, but are not limited to, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, exercise abuse, pornography and gambling. Classic hallmarks of addiction include: impaired control over substances or behavior, preoccupation with substance or behavior, continued use despite consequences, and denial. The adolescents and young adults try drugs or other potentially addictive behavior because they are seeking some sort of reward or benefit. Those who take drugs, for instance, do so because of the physical effects they hope to experience. Drugs have a marked effect on the body and mind. If there were no effect, people would be unlikely to repeat the experience. No one sets out just to become addicted. This is the research statistics from one of my community in Kisumu Town Western Kenya that was conducted by Otieno Andrew in 2009. According to Otieno there different types of drugs abuse that the adolescents and young adults have been taking and the percentage of the abuser and non abuser as he indicated them below.
I think unemployment and low education contribute to this problem of addiction since about 80% of the young adults and adolescents have no jobs because of low education.
As an extensive review of each of these models is beyond the scope of this manuscript, interested readers are directed to the references cited for additional aspects of each model. The growing body of data on the neurobiology of addiction has the potential to address more effectively one of the major public health problems facing societies today. A neurodevelopment perspective with a focus on youth vulnerability could help advance efforts related to early