Substance and Behavioral Addictions, and Their Consequences among Vulnerable Populations

Sussman, Steve; Sinclair, Deborah Louise

doi:10.3390/ijerph19106163

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 38 publications

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“…A proven role of noradrenergic interactions in anxiety, coping, and impulse control [ 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 ] contributes to both the emergence and increase in severity of compulsions [ 63 , 64 , 65 ]. To attempt to clarify the concept of vulnerability to impulsivity, individual or population vulnerability is to be defined as an outcome of other concurrent variables in a potentially preventable, reversible process [ 66 ]. A vulnerable population may consist of individuals with activity-limiting physical or mental impairments or of socially or economically disadvantaged people such as homeless, rural, adopted, or the elderly.…”

Section: Behavioural Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Reward to Anhedonia-Dopamine Function in the Global Mental Health Context

Dresp-Langley

2023

Biomedicines

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When “hijacked” by compulsive behaviors that affect the reward and stress centers of the brain, functional changes in the dopamine circuitry occur as the consequence of pathological brain adaptation. As a brain correlate of mental health, dopamine has a central functional role in behavioral regulation from healthy reward-seeking to pathological adaptation to stress in response to adversity. This narrative review offers a spotlight view of the transition from healthy reward function, under the control of dopamine, to the progressive deregulation of this function in interactions with other brain centers and circuits, producing what may be called an anti-reward brain state. How such deregulation is linked to specific health-relevant behaviors is then explained and linked to pandemic-related adversities and the stresses they engendered. The long lockdown periods where people in social isolation had to rely on drink, food, and digital rewards via the internet may be seen as the major triggers of changes in motivation and reward-seeking behavior worldwide. The pathological adaptation of dopamine-mediated reward circuitry in the brain is discussed. It is argued that, when pushed by fate and circumstance into a physiological brain state of anti-reward, human behavior changes and mental health is affected, depending on individual vulnerabilities. A unified conceptual account that places dopamine function at the centre of the current global mental health context is proposed.

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