Article Critique 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Article Critique 2 - Essay ExampleAfter reading the article, integrity realizes how important it is to avoid drugs in the firstly place as according to the article, the effect of the drugs on the brain chemistry is so fast and strong, that people dont even realize how and when the drugs take on control over them and make them addicts. Hence, the best way to reduce habituation is to keep away from drugs and never to fall in the trap of just one time. Summary The article Stress, Habits, and Drug Addiction A Psychoneuroendocrinological Perspective, is written with an intention of understanding how stress leads to substance abuse and addiction by affecting the brain chemistry in human beings. Psychological stress helps the human beings to face the imminent threat and adapt to the surrounding. However, excessive stress rejoinder can lead to pathological disorders as it can enhance addictive mien in people. The authors argue that stress not only stimulates the motivation in reward sy stem and creates the possibility of addiction, but also develops a risk of relapse by developing a habit of certain actions and cravings that lead to addiction and relapse. Brain imaging has shown that goal directed actions in human beings are controlled by prefrontal cortex and habitual actions are directed by dorsolateral striatum. The option (and the action) of taking drug for the first time is in control of human beings, but once the action takes habitual, he loses control over it and becomes an addict. That is, the action becomes unvoluntary and gets into the category of habitual actions. Hence, addiction is called as maladaptive form of habit process as a voluntary action of taking drugs gets transformed into an addiction. fit to the authors, the first important factor of addictive behavior is the function of dopamine. A study by Packard and McGaugh (1996) has revealed that dopamine is instrumental in development of habitual behavior and strengthening the different aspects of habit formation in human beings. This leads to second factor which is the habitual behavior in human beings. Habits can be delineate as the behavior pattern in which the actions of human being persist even when the reward or goal value of that action reduces to a broad extent. It takes regular and persistence efforts for a particular action to become a habit. However, a study by Miles, Everitt and Dickingson (2003) has revealed that in case of drug use, people become addicted (habitual) to drugs in very short time and the transition from controlled dosage to addiction is unusually rapid and fast. The third factor of addiction is the substance itself as it acts as strong stimuli for cause of relapse in people suffering from addiction. The fourth factor in the development of addiction is a problem or injury to the goal directed system, which is located in the prefrontal cortex. Chronic drug administration leads to the damage of prefrontal cortex. This shows that use of drugs har m the human beings in two ways. Firstly, the drug use leads to damage of prefrontal cortex and secondly, the damage, in turn, strengthens the addiction to drugs. This shows how the brain chemistry influences the addiction in behavior pattern. However, the authors have assemble that even stress plays a