Treatment of psychostimulant addiction has been a major, and not fully met, challenge. For opioid addiction, there is strong evidence for the effectiveness of several medications. For psychostimulants, there is no corresponding form of agonist maintenance that has met criteria for regulatory approval or generally accepted use.
Full Answer
What are the reinforcing effects of stimulants?
The reinforcing (rewarding) effects of psychomotor stimulants (cocaine and amphetamine) depend on the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system innervating the nucleus accumbens (Wise, 1981; for review, seeKoob, 1992), perhaps especially the shell subregion (Bassareo and Di Chiara, 1997).
Do you need help overcoming stimulant addiction?
These are just a few of the signs that you may need help overcoming stimulant addiction. Professional treatment for stimulant addiction will include an array of treatment methods such as counseling, therapy and support which will come together to help you get – and stay – sober.
What are the long term effects of stimulant addiction?
Stimulant Dependence. If the prospect of incurring these long-term health effects isn’t already bad enough, a chronic stimulant user is also at high risk of developing tolerance to, dependence on and, eventually, addiction to stimulants.
What causes physical dependence on stimulants?
Physical dependence can develop when a person uses stimulants often or in high doses—a pattern of use that may arise given an ever-increasing tolerance to the stimulant effects 2. Furthermore, dependent individuals may experience a stimulant withdrawal syndrome when use of the drug stops or slows.
What is the psychomotor stimulant theory of addiction?
Abstract. The theory is advanced that the common denominator of a wide range of addictive substances is their ability to cause psychomotor activation.
What are some medical complications from stimulant use?
At the same time, stimulants elevate a user's blood pressure, heart rate and breathing. Heavy use can cause irregular heartbeat, heart failure and seizures, and, in some cases, death. A user coming down from the high of a stimulant may experience restlessness, anxiety and insomnia.
Which drug is used as psychomotor stimulants?
Psychomotor Stimulants: These psychotropic medications stimulate the central nervous system (CNS) by boosting the release of certain chemicals in the brain. They include: Adderall (amphetamine and dextroamphetamine) Dexedrine (dextroamphetamine)
Which among the following are conditions that can be treated by stimulants?
These medications are approved to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), sleep-disorders such as narcolepsy and excessive sleepiness, obesity, and binge-eating disorder.
What are the potential side effects of stimulants?
Many users experience a loss of appetite, increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure and body temperature, interrupted sleep patterns, panic, hallucinations, and irritability. Taking high dosages of stimulants can result in convulsions, seizures, and possibly even death.
What are the side effects of stimulants Class 11?
Side Effects of Stimulants:Loss of appetite.Insomnia (loss of sleep)Euphoria.Hallucinations (Psychosis)Trembling.Restlessness, agitation, tenseness.Hypertension.Palpitation and heart rhythm disorders.More items...•
What are the toxic effects of psychomotor stimulant drugs?
These agents also possess potent reinforcing properties that can result in excessive self-administration and abuse. Chronic use is associated with adverse effects including psychosis, seizures, and cerebrovascular accidents, though these complications usually occur in individuals with preexisting risk factors.
What are the side effects of CNS stimulants?
WHAT ARE SIDE EFFECTS OF CNS STIMULANTS, ANOREXIANTS?Bad/metallic taste in the mouth.Diarrhea.Headache.Nausea.Vomiting.Dry mouth.Drowsiness.Tiredness.More items...•
What are the side effects of ADHD medication?
The most common side effects are loss of appetite and trouble sleeping. Other ADHD medicine side effects include jitteriness, irritability, moodiness, headaches, stomachaches, fast heart rate, and high blood pressure. Side effects usually happen in the first few days of starting a new medicine or taking a higher dose.
Which of the following is a drug that can be used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?
Methylphenidate. Methylphenidate is the most commonly used medicine for ADHD. It belongs to a group of medicines called stimulants, which work by increasing activity in the brain, particularly in areas that play a part in controlling attention and behaviour.
Which of the following is a drug that can be used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD quizlet?
Common stimulants for the treatment of ADHD Common stimulants include: Adderall® (intermediate-acting) Adderall XR® (long-acting) Concerta® (long-acting)
Which of the following is true regarding the relationship between stimulant drugs and performance?
Which of the following is true regarding the relationship between stimulant drugs and performance? They increase resistance to fatigue and boredom.
What happens after extinction of drug self administration?
After extinction of drug self-administration, exposure to drug-associated stimuli, experimenter-administered drug , or stress reinstates drug-seeking behavior, i.e., responding in extinction on a lever that previously resulted in drug infusions. This procedure was introduced, refined, and detailed by Stewart and colleagues ( de Wit and Stewart, 1981; Shaham et al., 1994) and has led to many investigations of psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of relapse. We focus here on cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking, because this not only models key aspects of relapse in human addicts, but also reveals the involvement of limbic cortical–ventral striatopallidal systems (Fig. 1) in cocaine addiction. A basic feature of this procedure is that established drug taking is first extinguished and then its reinstatement is subsequently studied. Although an effective and fruitful model of relapse, extinction of drug self-administration is not a means by which human addicts achieve abstinence, which is more likely to arise through an active decision to abstain or through forced abstinence. Moreover, because the extinguished response is so readily reinstated, it is unlikely that extinction training will provide an effective clinical approach to treatment. On the other hand, non-reinforced exposure to cocaine-associated stimuli, and thereby extinction of their motivational effects, might be a useful therapeutic strategy ( O'Brien et al., 1990, 1992; Robbins et al., 1992 ), although cue exposure in the clinic is unlikely to be sufficient because the cues may remain potent elicitors of craving in the original drug-associated environment.
What is behavioral sensitization?
Another important source of information about systems involved in addiction arises from studies of behavioral sensitization, which refers to the progressive enhancement of species-specific behavioral responses to drugs of abuse that develops over the course of repeated drug exposure and persists after long periods of withdrawal. As mentioned above, sensitization occurs not only to the locomotor activating effects of psychostimulants but perhaps also to the incentive motivational effects of drugs of abuse, i.e., wanting ( Robinson and Berridge, 1993; Deroche et al., 1999 ). Previous exposure to cocaine or amphetamine, resulting in locomotor sensitization, promotes drug self-administration ( Horger et al., 1990; Mendrek et al., 1998; Lorrain et al., 2000) and enhances stimulus–reward learning and responding for conditioned reward ( Taylor and Horger, 1999; Taylor and Jentsch, 2001 ). The expression of sensitization is also associated with the reinstatement of self-administration after long-term extinction ( De Vries et al., 1998 ), whereas environmental stimuli and conditioning strongly modulate sensitization in rats, as well as drug craving in humans ( Robinson et al., 1998 ).
Is NAC DA responsive to drugs?
Although NAc DA may be especially responsive to many drugs of abuse initially ( Di Chiara and Imperato, 1988 ), the fact that DA transmission is increased in both the NAc and DS when drugs are self-administered over extended periods of time may contribute powerfully to aberrant learning involving both structures.