The purpose of this study is to understand and analyze why individuals develop and manage to leave drug abuse. The material consists of interviews with eight individuals who have gone through a life of addiction and managed to change their lifestyle. We contacted the participants through the organization called KRIS (Criminals Redress with Society). The results indicate that the participants have had a troublesome upbringing and been labeled by society as outsiders which have led them into addiction. The results also show that they have all gone through a social conversion from the life as an addict to become sober. The results of our study are analyzed with Jonsson and Bergström’s theory on social in heritage and Becker and Andersson’s view of outsiders and qualifications for drug abuse. The results are also analyzed with Ebaughs theory on role-exit. What we would like to contribute is an understanding of how an individual enters addiction and how they manage to leave drug abuse.

The phenomenon of self-stimulation has been used to map the neural circuitry of reinforcement and determine its neurophysiological and neurochemical characteristics. More recently, it has been proposed that drugs of abuse control behavior by their effects on the same neural systems. However, drug effects rise and fall over minutes or hours while conventional brain stimulation trains have abrupt onset and offset and last less than one second. Possibly because of this, the pattern of responding produced by drug reinforcers is different from the pattern produced by conventional brain stimulation. Furthermore, pharmacological antagonists of drug reinforcement increase the rate of drug self-administration while antagonists of brain stimulation reinforcement depress self-stimulation. To test the hypothesis that the differences in the characteristics of brain stimulation and drugs as reinforcers are due to differences in the kinetics of drugs and brain stimulation, we have modelled drug kinetics with frequency modulated brain stimulation trains. It is reported that animals will self-administer such brain stimulation and that, under these conditions, dopamine antagonists can induce an increase in the rate of self-administration.

No description available.

This thesis involves a comprehensive review of the personality, psychiatric, and genetic risk factors for alcoholism and drug abuse. Based on this review, it is hypothesised that specific risk factors cluster together to represent separate vulnerability pathways to substance abuse and that differential susceptibility to the pharmacological effects of drugs of abuse (reinforcement and intoxication) mediates the relationship between such risk characteristics and drug-taking behaviour. A series of four studies are presented indicating that groups of individuals characterized by different risk factors for alcoholism are differentially sensitive to the reinforcing properties of alcohol. Non-alcoholic young adult men presumed to be at genetic risk for alcoholism (due to high genetic loading for alcoholism) were shown to be sensitive to the effects of alcohol on resting and stress-induced physiological states hypothesized to reflect activity within a brain reward system involved in the activation of approach and avoidance behaviour. Non-alcoholic young adult males self-reporting a personality profile that has been associated with increased risk for the development of panic disorder also demonstrated idiosyncratic responses to alcohol intoxication in that they appeared particularly sensitive to the. fear-dampening effects of alcohol. Finally, a group of non-alcoholic males were identified as being particularly susceptible to elevated and problematic alcohol and drug use in early adulthood due to a disinhibited/antisocial personality profile. These findings were interpreted as reflecting separate vulnerability pathways to substance use/abuse in which differential sensitivity to drug reinforcement and disinhibited personality are thought to play an important role in determining liability to seek out behavioural reinforcement from drugs of abuse. A second set of studies tested whether these factors are implicated in the maintenance of problematic alcohol and drug consumptio

This is a thesis on drug use among Indian high school pupils in the Durban municipal area. This study was undertaken because of the high incidence of drug use reported among Indian youth, and because of the paucity of factual information and research on the subject, in South Africa. The objectives of this investigation were to obtain scientific and objective information on the dynamics and causal factors associated with the use of drugs. The findings were compared to those of existing studies. The sample comprised of 128 drug users and 128 non-users, selected from ten Indian secondary schools in the Durban municipal area. The data from drug-users and non-users was obtained through the use of a confidential questionnaire. School guidance counsellors assisted with the administration and distribution of the questionnaires. In this investigation the researcher compared the biographical details of both drug users and non-users. It was concluded that drug users and non-users came from divergent socio-economic backgrounds, although drug users tended to be more represented among the lower socio-economic group. In this investigation it was established that male pupils showed more preference for the use of drugs than female pupils, and the average age of the drug users appeared to be between 15-17 years. Although unfavourable family background was slightly more prevalent among the drug users, they did not account completely for significantly more drug use, since non-users who suffered from the same plight of unfavourable home background, did not resort to the use of drugs. Drugs that were most commonly used by respondents in this survey included dagga, inhalants, Mandrax and codeine. It also appeared that the influence of the peer group contributed significantly to most of the pupils initiation into drug use. It was also reported that most of the drug users indicated that they had received some information on the negative aspects of drug-taking from teachers, parents and law enforcement officials, however, some of the pupils felt that the information they received, did not really influence their behaviour and attitudes to drugs. It is hoped that the findings of the present study will be of benefit to all concerned individuals, and that it will stimulate greater awareness and responsiveness to the problem of drug use, and the inherent problems with regard to the management thereof. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, Durban, 1990.

This thesis investigates the phenomenological task of asking what the lived experience of the wounded healer is like for ex-drink/drug-addict Counselling Psychologists working in addiction. The wounded healer is a term that has been circulating in medical and psychotherapy circles for the past 150 years and has been associated with the helping professions and in particular addiction.

This thesis attempted to determine if there were personality characteristic differences, as measured by the MMPI, between drug abusers who left treatment prematurely and drug abusers who remained in treatment for an extended period of time. In addition, it was attempted to determine if there were personality characteristic differences between drug abusers who entered treatment voluntarily and drug abusers who were required by law to obtain treatment.The MMPI protocols of 59 male drug abusers were divided into four groups and subjected to a two by two multivariate and Univariate Analysis of Variance. Results show that no significant differences were found between drug abusers admitted voluntarily and drug abusers admitted involuntarily. Significant differences were found between drug abusers who left treatment prematurely and drug abusers who remained in treatment for an extended period of time. Drug abusers remaining in treatment scored higher on scales Two, Seven, and Eight of the WI, while drug abusers who left treatment scored higher on the Lie scale. Suggestions for future research were made.

Buprenorphine is a promising medication for the treatment of opiate abuse. The pharmacology of buprenorphine has been studied in vitro using radioligand binding and [³⁵S]GTPγS assays, and in vivo using assays of antinociception in rodents. A number of compounds with potential similar pharmacology have also been characterised. These are an iso-morphinan pyrrolidine derivative, and long-lasting 14-aminomorphinones and codeinones, in particular clocinnamox (C-CAM), a pure μ-antagonist and methoclocinnamox (MC-CAM), which has some agonist properties.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii, 1970. / Bibliography: leaves 77-88. / v, 88 l tables

The extremely high prevalence of substance abuse among young offenders and the significant personal harms associated with such use highlights the need for the development and delivery of effective intervention programs. This thesis explores the beliefs of young offenders about their substance use and offending behaviour in order to inform the development of more engaging and potentially more effective intervention approaches. A grounded theory methodology was used, involving interviews with fourteen young offenders. The beliefs of participants about themselves and their behaviour were understood in terms of basic human needs for relatedness, autonomy and competence. It is concluded that interventions with young offenders who abuse substances should be designed in ways that help to overcome the internal and environmental barriers that prevent these needs being met. / Thesis (MPsy(Forensic))--University of South Australia, 2005.