Addiction & Alcoholism: Pavlovian Substance Abuse Associations

Addiction is an associative and memory disorder that has plagued mankind for thousands of years. The ancient Sumerians were getting high on opium centuries before Christ was born and Native Americans regularly ingested large quantities of peyote long before the New World was even a remote theory. However, the concept of addiction as a disease is one that has met with resistance by some despite the easily observable neurological nature of the condition. Perhaps this is because it is such an old condition that only recently classifying it as a disease is difficult for some to accept? Whatever the case may be, studies have shown that addiction is indeed a progressive, treatable but potentially fatal disease- even among animals. The University of Texas at Austin completed a study recently that confirmed the presence of addictive behaviors in mice that were exposed to substances such as cocaine or alcohol. These substances caused a flurry of neurological activity in the reward and pleasure center of the brain. This reward center exists in the brains of both humans and mice- among many other animals, leading to the conclusion that similar results could be expected with other mammals. Once exposed to these addictive substances, associations were logged by the brain concerning the context of the reward. And because the drugs elicited a pleasurable feeling, neurological pathways in the brain developed to service and help recreate this reward experience. However, all of this was only the beginning of the study. The next phase took two groups of mice and subjected one group to daily doses of alcohol and the other only saline for several days. Next, both groups were then placed in cages that consisted of rectangular corridors with two rooms at the end. One room had textured flooring and white walls while the other had a mesh floor and black walls. Neither group of mice showed any preference for either room. The test subjects were then given cocaine in one of the rooms. What happened next left no doubt of the Pavlovian/Associative nature of the disease of addiction. Once exposed to cocaine, a significant number of the mice who received saline injections in the initial part of the test later showed a strong preference for the room where cocaine was administered in the second half of the test. However, the mice that had previously been given alcohol spent twice as much time in the room where cocaine had been administered. This demonstrated that once a mouse had been exposed to alcohol in an amount and duration equivalent to human “binge drinking,” they clearly preferred the environment where other substances triggered those same reward center responses. This is very similar to what Pavlov found in the Case of the Drooling Dogs. Where the sound of a bell at food time later caused the dogs to drool even when it was not time to eat, the mice that formed pleasurable associations with alcohol and cocaine were later compelled to remain in an environment where these rewards had once been obtained. This is extremely important information for anyone who has suffered from addiction or alcoholism, because the associations that they have with substance abuse can trigger relapses later in recovery if not properly managed. This associative feature of addiction is why it is so important to remove yourself from the environment you used in if you hope to stand a chance of success. That’s why treatment for addiction and alcoholism most often occurs in residential treatment centers or outpatient programs where a person can be removed from drug related environments and associations and concentrate exclusively on their recovery.