The Biopsychosocial Model Of Addiction

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There are various factors that influence addiction. These factors were broadly categorized into environmental and biological factors. Biological is mainly based on someone’s genetic makeup. Life experiences are considered to be environmental. When we consider these two categories, we find that there are some causes that fall in neither category. There was need for a better way to classify addictions. In 1977, George L. Engel, a psychiatrist at the University of Rochester come up with the Biopsychosocial Model of Addiction (Fisher 2009). According to them, addiction may be due to biological, social or psychological effects. We categorize addiction into these three groups so that we are able to clearly understand the addictions properly.
Initially, …show more content…

This was the basis of biological model of addiction. When a substance is regularly consumed there is a likelihood that it will alter the metabolism of the body. The substance therefore has to be taken regularly to maintain the newly adjusted metabolism. Lack of the substance will lead to withdrawal symptoms. Their research failed to prove their hypothesis. Sunderwirth and Milkman did not restrain themselves to the study of addiction of narcotics (Miller 2013). They deduced that addiction may be result of self-induced neurotransmission. Where there were more neurotransmitters there was some sort of hyper mood among cocaine users. This is actually a psychological effect rather than …show more content…

The number one leading cause of addiction is stress. You find that maybe someone has been looking for work for a period of time without success. When they abuse substances, they tend to forget what they are going through. They do this over and over and in the end become addicts. Another way people become addicts is the need to fit in. take an example whereby your group of friends are alcoholics. If you spend most time with them, you will be tempted to drink. This will happen several times. Continuous consumption will lead to addiction. This is an example of a psychological mode of

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