The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), especially its oval (ov) subregion, receives a robust dopaminergic input from the periaqueducal, retrorubral, and ventral tegmental midbrain areas (Hasue & Shammah-Lagnado, 2002). Given the critical role of dopamine in motivated behaviors, we combined behavioral testing of operant responding towards natural and pharmacological rewards, and brain slices patch-clamp electrophysiology to identify specific alterations in dopaminergic regulation of inhibitory synaptic transmission within the ovBST as a result of chronic cocaine self-administration. In drug naïve rats we observed that DA dose-dependently decreased GABAA-inhibitory post-synaptic currents (IPSC) through the actions of pre-synaptic D2 receptors. However in rats maintaining cocaine self-administration, DA (1µM) increased the amplitude of GABAA-IPSC and this increase resulted from a loss of functional pre-synaptic D2 receptors and the de novo addition of D1 receptors. Furthermore, direct activation of D1 receptors only in rats maintaining cocaine self-administration resulted in a sustained increase of GABAA-IPSC (LTPGABA). The D1-induced LTPGABA was blocked by intracellular application of a Src-tyrosine kinase antagonist in the recording pipette. Based on this observation we concluded that the D1 receptor was located post-synaptically. However, the measured LTPGABA was associated with modifications in the coefficient of variation and paired pulse ratio of evoked GABAA IPSCs, suggesting that it is maintained by persistently increased GABA release from pre-synaptic terminals. Therefore to explain this apparent contradiction we propose the existence of a currently unknown retrograde messenger that is released from the post-synaptic neuron, upon D1 receptor activation, and travels backward to increase GABA release from presynaptic terminals. Moreover, application of a D2 agonist blocked the D1-induced LTPGABA, and co-application of a G-protein antagonist in the intracellular pipette prevented this D2 mediated inhibition, suggesting that due to maintenance of cocaine self-administration there was an emergence of a new post-synaptic D2 component whose functional role seems to inhibit the D1 receptor increase of GABAA-IPSCs. Importantly, modulation of synaptic transmission by dopamine was identical to drug-naïve conditions when intravenous cocaine administration was not contingent upon operant responding (yoked), before the maintenance phase of cocaine self-administration (acquisition), or in rats maintaining operant responding for sucrose under the same reinforcement schedule. All together we identified robust alterations in the effects of dopamine on inhibitory synaptic transmission following voluntary cocaine self-administration, these results represent to our knowledge, the first evidence of a change in dopaminergic regulation of synaptic transmission specific to voluntary drug intake. / Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-05-04 14:58:56.775

Thesis (M.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1966. / Typewritten. Also available in print.

No description available.

In “The Desire to Fill” I examine visual culture, including paintings, graphic art, advertisements and architecture, in relation to the lived experience of addiction. My study begins in 1751, the year that William Hogarth produced his engravings Gin Lane and Beer Street, and it ends in 1919, the year that Alfred Priest exhibited his painting Cocaine at the Royal Academy’s annual Summer Exhibition. There are four underlying arguments in this text. First, that addiction to drugs and alcohol is a manifestation of a desire to “fill a void.” Second, that addiction has long been thought to be legible from the body. Third, that addiction cannot be reliably read from the body, whether in life or an image. Fourth, any project that is concerned with addiction and visual culture is therefore a paradoxical one, and must, by necessity, be a speculative one. My methodological approach in this text is influenced by feminist theory and queer theory, and I explore the history of addiction using a continuist framework. In other words, I suggest that, although the identities of the “addict” and “alcoholic” as we know them today were discursively constructed at the end of the nineteenth century, people experienced addiction before these identities came into being. In that vein, I suggest that the woman in Hogarth’s Gin Lane is an alcoholic, and I show how anxieties about alcoholic mothers have remained remarkably consistent over the last three hundred years. I also discuss graphic artist George Cruikshank’s experiences as a temperance advocate after he stopped drinking, gin palaces and women’s desire for alcohol, the social and legal ramifications of addiction, and, finally, cocaine and tobacco addiction after the First World War. Ultimately, I examine the visual culture of addiction in order to destabilize stereotypes and myths about alcoholics and drug addicts that are still circulating today. / Thesis (Ph.D, Art History) -- Queen's University, 2010-07-21 13:31:48.788

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-240). Also available in print.

For social workers, the entire problem of drug addiction is a challenge. On the one hand, it is widespread and threatening; on the other, it is dealt with much ineptness and prejudice. Because addiction involves individuals, and because-problems of an emotional nature either cause or intensify the addiction, the social work profession can—or should—play a leading part in it's treatment and prevention. The thesis strives to show the addict as an individual, what his problems are, and how he can be aided by caseworkers, as well as by psychiatrists, psychologists, etc. In particular, it strives to clarify the social worker's role in a therapeutic approach. Data for the study came from many sources: from texts and reports made by various authorities in the field, particularly, studies made at the Lexington narcotics farm. Personal visits were made to prisons, clinics, and hospitals handling addicts, and discussions were held with doctors engaged in this work. Correspondence was carried on with people in various regions who are in a position to study the problem at first hand. And finally, interviews were held with many addicts, both treated and untreated. Final impressions rendered are a product drawn and based on the composite findings. The plan of the thesis is to review first the available information on the general incidence of addiction; then to focus what is known of the typical addict as a person, individually and socially. Treatment plans—current, discarded, and untried—are then discussed; and the final chapter attempts to describe the work that caseworkers can perform with treatable addicts. The conclusion of the thesis is that present methods can be improved considerably, with the help of social workers among others, for work with treatable addicts, and that the number of "cured" addicts can be raised by such improvement. At the same time, the "untreatability" of many addicts has been examined, with the conclusion that a very large group of addicts cannot at present expect any real psychiatric help. Virtually no written material exists on the subject of casework with the treatable addicts, and it is hoped that this study points the way to such a development. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Studies have shown that, in the USA, 6 % of all surfers are at risk for developing an addiction that is damaging for the individual and the enviroment, 30 % use the internet to get away from anxiety and other negative feelings. The present study, which involved 847 adolescents in the community of Piteå, at junior and high school level, showed that 10% of the adolescent were in danger of developing Internet addiction, and 3% were problably already addicted. Teenagers are gereally at greater risk for this king of behaviour. The study showed that boys in the 9th grade were ecpecially vulnerable; they reported spending significantly mote time at the computer and the gave high ratings ont the 'risk questions' that other participants in the study. Interviews with five frequent Internet users showed a wide field of applications and different kind of internet addiction. Three of the five interviewees reported that they consider themselves to be addicted to the Internet, one of them also experienced severe anxiety, in part as a result from the internet use. In Sweden, little research has been carried out in this area., therefore this study is important. If something is to be classified as a "national illness" at least 1% must suffer from i. The results show that 3% of high school adolescents in this study may have reached that level.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / There is a paucity of data relating to the psychology of heroin addiction. It was the purpose of this investigation to generate some meaningful data which might have utility for the adequate understanding, prevention, and treatment of this ·serious social-psycholog ical problem. Heroin addicts were contrasted with non-addict controls with respect to three important psychological dimensions: self-esteem, future time perspective, and locus of control. Three major hypotheses were based on the assumption that heroin addict subjects had low self-esteem, a foreshortened future time perspective, and an external locus of control. Three minor or secondary hypotheses were also developed which assumed a positive interrelationship between self-esteem, future time perspective and locus of control. / 2999-01-01

This research introduces the concept of “brand addiction” as a new marketing construct. Employing conceptual development, the concept of brand addiction is defined as a psychological state that entails an obsessive relationship between the consumer and a specific brand. To examine the phenomenon of brand addiction, the present research was designed based on a partial sequential mixed methods research in which a qualitative study was followed by a quantitative study. Arguing that research on brand addiction should be built based on an understanding of how consumers experience this phenomenon in reality, the research incorporated a series of four qualitative focus group studies to uncover the possible core features, motives, and consequences of the brand addiction prototype using discursive psychological perspective. Survey data were subsequently used to generate the brand addiction measurement scale and to test the brand addiction theoretical model. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the brand addiction measurement scale employed 14 core elements. In addition to the brand addiction core features, the brand addiction prototype comprises brand trust, ideal, and actual self-image congruence and fashion interest as its antecedents. Furthermore, the brand addiction prototype includes the feeling of guilt, appearance esteem, debt attitude, and life happiness as its consequences. This research concludes with a presentation and discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications. The research findings provide an understanding of and deep insights into the brand addiction phenomenon, thereby adding to the existing body of literature.

University of Macau / Faculty of Health Sciences