Question

How can addictions be stressful? Please relate the concept of screen addictions to the bigger problem of stress and addictions.

Answer 1

Ans) Stress is a well-known risk factor in the development of addiction and in addiction relapse vulnerability.

- A series of population-based and epidemiological studies have identified specific stressors and individual-level variables that are predictive of substance use and abuse.

- Preclinical research also shows that stress exposure enhances drug self-administration and reinstates drug seeking in drug-experienced animals.

- The deleterious effects of early life stress, child maltreatment, and accumulated adversity on alterations in the corticotropin releasing factor and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (CRF/HPA), the extrahypothalamic CRF, the autonomic arousal, and the central noradrenergic systems are also presented.

- The effects of these alterations on the corticostriatal-limbic motivational, learning, and adaptation systems that include mesolimbic dopamine, glutamate, and gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA) pathways are discussed as the underlying pathophysiology associated with stress-related risk of addiction.

- The effects of regular and chronic drug use on alterations in the stress and motivational systems with specific attention to the impact of these adaptations on stress regulation, impulse control, and perpetuation of compulsive drug seeking and relapse susceptibility.

- Finally research gaps in furthering our understanding of the association between stress and addiction, with the hope that addressing these unanswered questions will significantly influence new prevention and treatment strategies to address vulnerability to addiction.