Abnormal Psychology 2: Substance Use Disorders And Aggression

substance use disorders and substance-induced disorders;

10 classes: alcohol, caffeine, cannabis, hallucinogens, sedatives, inhalants opioids, stimulants, tobacco, and unknown substances

the mesolimbic dopamine system from the prefrontal cortex to the--> VTA--> nucleus accumbens

- lots of things activate this system, but drugs do this a lot and quick

- the problem is that drugs increase this system beyond what natural rewards would and this leads to addiction

as you keep taking the drug, it is your drive to take the drug that increases, not necessarily the pleasure from it.

- want vs like- dopamine seems to drive more the wanting of the drug than the liking of the drug

- opiates act on GABA neurons which inhibit dopamine neurons, so that more dopamine is released in nucleus accumbens

- amphetamine blocks dopamine reuptake

Acohol promotes dopamine release in nucleus accumbens too

- one day they just got orange juice, and one day OJ with alcohol- those with the alcohol had more dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens

1) IMPAIRED CONTROL

- taken over longer time than intended

- persistent desire to stop but cant

- craving

2) SOCIAL IMPAIRMENT

- failure to fulfill major obligations

- continued use despite issues

- important activities given up

3) RISKY USE

- recurrent use when physical health at risk

- use despite knowledge of psych or physical risk

4) PHARMACOLOGICAL CRITERIA

- tolerance

- withdrawl

(not necessary for diagnosis since drugs like hallucinogens dont show these)

Craving has been looked at in relation to classical conditioning.

People would come into ER saying they had taken their usual dose of the drug but in a dif place than usual and then they had OD. When you ingest a drug in same place over and over, your body sees this cue and down regulates things so that your body doesn’t get overwhelmed. so when u take it in a new place you might OD on same dose. this cuing can also lead to cravings obviously. (US= drug, CS= environment)

Severity: mild= 2-3 symptoms, moderate is 4-5 symptoms, severe is >6 symptoms

Remission: early= 3-12 months without drug, sustained is >12 months

cannabis: lifetime: 42%, more in males. Use within past year: 10.2% especially in 15-24 year olds

Alcohol: lifetime: 91% more in >25 years old. Use within past year: 78.4% more in males

total 21.9%

female- 19.8%

male - 23.8%

white 24%

black 12.4%

hispanic 24%

total 23%

female 20%

male 25.9%

white 21.7%

black 25%

hispanic 24.4%

46%- most common alcohol use, nicotine dependence, drugs, personality, anxiety, mood

o Nicotine 32%

o Heroin 23%

o Cocaine 17%

o Alcohol 15%

o Stimulants 11%

o Cannabis 9%

o Psychedelics 5%

Biological: genes thought to account for 40-60%, people with less acetyldehyde dehydrogenase less issues, Mz>DZ

Personality: immature, impulsive, feel inadequate, high expectations, require lots of praise, low frustration tolerance, agressive

Behavioural disinhibition: difficulty inhibiting impulses, cant tolerate stress

Alcohol expectation theory: if i drink i will speak french better (similar thing with pot - munchies in canada vs appetite suppressant in Jamaica)

Environmental: stress, peers

- housed monkeys individually, measured hormones and took PET

- then after a year they put them into groups of 4

- they separated themselves into dominant and subordinate groups

- after the redid PET scans and the dominant monkeys caused them to have higher density of D2 receptors

- subordinate monkeys used more cocaine

low levels of dopamine receptors, as opposed to people with higher levels;

to have a good time!

- most important aspect is that aspect to drug affacts addiction

- in France, drinking is consistent throughout the day and so people with problems in France aren’t sloppy or causing problems, but show physical problems like liver cirrhosis
in the US however people with use disorders are more disruptive

50%; 39%; 40% as opposed to only 10 when you start at 21

in early 1900s, they created the Harrison Narcotic Act- which regulated the importation and distribution of drugs;

cannabis possession;

differences in sentencing for crack vs. powder - you get the same sentence for 100g of cocaine than for 1 g of crack cocaine - is this an SES disparities? crack is much cheaper

drugs structurally similar to known drugs but with minor differences and these differences allow you to patent new drugs

- recent addition to the DSMV

- = persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behaviour that disrupts life

- lifetime prevalence is .4-1% and is higher in males than females, and is higher in african americans, asian americans and natives

-medications like antabuse (works on acedyldehyde dehydrogenase) and naltrexone (opioid receptors antagonist, reduces cravings);

-psychological treatments like group therapy, behaviour (aversion therapy- pair pleasurable stimulus with aversive one), CBT, self help groups like AA

- combinations of these two are best- medications for withdrawl, behavioural techniques for environmental cues etc.

NIAAA study 1997 looked at personality traits and those peoples outcome in three dif treatments- CBT, individual enhancement and AA
- found no difference based on personality

A behaviour either verbal or physical, used to intentionally harm another;

Types: Instrumental/proactive (goal oriented, less driven by emotion); Hostile/ reactive (highly emotional, often impulsive

Perpetrators:

a) individual s with both sub use and schiz made up 1/5 of sample but caused 50% of crimes - but schiz have more prob of being victim than perpetrator, just when there is comorbidity there is a problem (Aresenault)

b) Individuals with psychosis at higher risk for violence if have substance abuse (Fazel)

Caretakers: those who care for patients with violent dementia have worse psych and physical health, this also effects other patients in turn

Victims: have increased risk of PTSD, MDE, sub use, losing a loved one to violence as well

82% of victims of homicide are male and young.
in Canada the crime rates, especially youth crime frequencies are decreasing, the severity however has increased.
- family violence accounts for 26% of all police related violent crime- 80% of the victims were female.
- suicide was 9th leading cause of death. rate is 3x higher in men than women (they are just more successful at it)

Psychoanalytic theory: says it is instinctual and the result of conflict between Eros (life) and Thanatos (death) . we must aggress in order to release negative energy and return to a state of calm= catharsis. We direct Thanatos away from us in the form of aggression to others

Lorenz and evolution: aggression is innate but learned over years of evolution as it is only way we can survive.

- he thought that inhibition may be proportionate to the amount of damage you can inflict. that is why lions dont attack each other. We cant do too much damage, but our weapons have made us more deadly than evolution intended

if aggressiveness lead us to survive we should all be very agressive across cultures and individuals but levels are not the same.
also uses circular reasoning : why are we aggressive--> instinvt--> how do you know?--> people aggress...

-OFC, amygdala (study of epileptic girl: stimulated amygdala + had rage fit, ablated it and still had epilepsy but less rage) medial hypothalamus, and PAG are thought to be involved in aggression

- amygdala especially seems to be involved in rage

- it is primitive and reacts instantaneously but is moderated by PFC
**OFC /PFC decides whether or not aggression is appropriate or not + inhibits the subcortical structures. When it doesnt, medial amygdala excites glutamenrgic neurons in medial hypothalamus which then excite PAG and this results in aggression

increased levels of reactive aggression, and decreased (hypoactive) decreased glucose metabolism here in individuals with histories of violence (like murderers)= more impulsive

appears to enhance aggressiveness by decreasing self-awareness and increasing focus on provocative things;

Looked at difference between hazardous and non hazardous drinkers as determine by getting 8 or higher on the AUDIT. those who were hazardous drinkers had much higher aggression

low levels of serotonin related to aggression, suicide, alcoholism, deviancy, impulsivity

Mosienko study:

had mice with high/normal and low levels of central serotonin

- put an intruder into cage and looked for attacks

- mice with low serotonin attacked more quickly, ore frequently and for longer than did the other mice ( although all groups of mice did attack)

Pihl et al 1995:

- three groups: tryptophan depleted, tryptophan normal, and tryptophan augemented

- given either alcohol or non alcoholic drink

- used Taylor Aggression Paradigm:

- had to compete against a partner and when you lost you got a shock when you won you gave one

- intensity of shock determined by person in pain

- some people provoked some not

§ Under low provocation, T- gave higher shocks to their partners than the T+ group – not enough serotonin leads to giving more shock

§ Alcohol drinkers gave higher shocks T-/B/T+

§ No correlation between alcohol and tryptophan depletion but approached in significance

Berman et al.

- said that there wasnt enough provocation and that we didnt know history or aggression

- separated based on aggression history

- gave some Paxil (SSRI) and some placebo

- also made it so if they won (which was 50%) they could see what shock they wouldve gotten and made it high like the person was an ass

- dependent variable- # of times they would shock at highest level)

-if you’re not really an agressive person, your numbers remain pretty low in terms of number and severity, even with no paxil. The history of aggression people gave more shocks and higher but especially if they had placebo not Paxil

- 20x higher in males than females- may explain difference in aggression

- related to aggression and dominance

- aggression very high in ado but declines along with testosterone at age 45

-BUT baseline levels of testosterone not well correlated to levels of aggression

1) levels of testosterone lead to status-seeking behaviours

2) levels of testosterone vary depending on outcome of competition- if you lose it goes down if you win it goes up (winning team + fans, Obama and his supporters)

3) changes in levels of testosterone will impact future behaviours- if you will you will need to defend your status and opposite

- had people play boxing or volleyball on Xbox
- would either win or loose
- no difference between two sports just winning or loosing
- took samples of testosterone after and had them compete an aggression task
- played point-subtraction paradigm against a same sex partner
- 3 buttons to get points and trade for money: reward button gives you points, steal button allows you to steal points form partner although you cant trade these in for money, last button protection
- in the men who won, their testosterone levels went up and male winners were more aggressive than male losers
- for women there was no testosterone difference between winners and losers

- looked at kids adopted from biological parents with or without ASPD

- looked at aversive home events in adopted homes and aggression

-found that the more aversive events in the home, the more likelihood kids with ASPD would show aggressively. Environment had a huge impact but only for kids predisposed toward showing aggression.

-another study found that parental negativity effects was greatest for those adoptees with a predisposition, causing them to be antisocial. Parental warmth however decreased the negativity/ antisocial behaviour

if you introduced a child to nonmaternal care before nine months, it didn’t matter the education of mother, aggression was about the same
if you introduce them to nonmaterial care at of after nine months the probability of physical aggression is slightly high in those with mothers with low education
if you never introduce them to nonmaterial care the probability of physical aggression is much higher in those with mothers with low education.

when we experience something which blocks us from attaining a goal and we feel upset (frustration), we are more likely to be aggressive.

-especially to outgroup members!

- frustration does not always lead to aggression

- frustration leads to anger, which might then lead to aggression

- anger of negative feelings can prepare someone to act aggressively in the presence of certain stimuli (like a gun or someone you hate etc)

- two major components:
- modelling- children learn to engage in aggressive behaviour by observing that behaviour either in real life or in the media
- Reinforcement: they receive positive or negative reinforcement which strengthens the behaviour

other factors:

heat

perceived intent- given shock and told it was either intentional or unintentional- if told it was intentional, the participant reported having more pain even though it was the same amount of shock

pain

suspicion of others

- cultures of honour (weak laws, aggression seen as appropriate)

- north vs south us (cortisol and testosterone levels when bumped into in hall)

- Semai is a people who see the world as out of your control, they have little physical violence no homicide vs the Waorani who see individuals in control of everything and all misfortune as result of human evil- constant violence

- viewing violence leads to violence especially if it has no consequences and viewer has violent tendencies

- Men who watched movies with sexual violence gave a woman who upset him a much higher shock than the others

- video games result in increase aggressive behaviours and reduction in empathy and the effect sizes across studies for this are pretty stable (even though methodologies change)