The article
I chose this week discusses the negative effects and the natural reward
devaluation caused by cocaine addiction.
Although cocaine is not a physically addicting drug, it can create a
very complex psychological disease. Undoubtedly,
regular use of cocaine can lead to serious cardiovascular issues as well as
brain damage; however, studies have also found that natural rewards become
severely devalued as cocaine abuse increases.
Once important aspects of life such as friends, family, recreational
activities, and health become far less important to an addict. Consequently, addicts must continue to resort
to cocaine in order to experience any sort of pleasure. The drug, in a sense, becomes a crutch to the
user despite all of these destructive effects.
Further studies show that there are three key factors responsible to
this devastating cycle: the drug itself, stress, and cocaine-associated cues. Cocaine cues represent anything that an
addict may associate with drug use and are capable of triggering intense
cravings. Researchers “…hypothesize that
the cocaine-paired taste in our model serves as a predictive cue of cocaine’s impending
availability and precipitates the expression of a conditioned aversive state in
learned anticipation of the future opportunity to self-administer
cocaine.” In other words, drug cues will
trick the body into thinking they are about to receive the drug and can cause
the subject to experience negative affective states such as dysphoria,
irritability, and anhedonia until the drug is consumed. Clearly, cocaine is a dangerous drug that appears
to only harm the body physically as well and psychologically over time.
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