A recent study published by Science Daily found that environmental cues responsible for triggering the emotional and stimuli-response that leads to drug use makes overcoming addiction challenging. But, we’ve known about environmental triggers for a long time, so what is so new about this particular study? University of Guelph researchers reveal how triggers from environmental cues make quitting drugs or alcohol harder than ever before.
Environmental cues are said to activate the area of the brain responsible for memory. So while certain triggers activate the brain’s emotional response, things happening in the environment, such as smoking, activate the actual memories of the addiction--thus, forgetting or getting “past” it becomes more challenging.
This study may impact the way we treat addiction in the future as shifts are made towards helping those in recovery to learn ways of effectively coping with the actual memories surround drug or alcohol use rather than just coping with the emotions attached to the substance abuse.
According to psychology professor Boyer Winters, stimuli such as buildings or places where drugs were once used become modifiers of memory function creating a conditioned response that is ingrained into the brain’s memory system. Thus, forgetting or coping with such stimuli is more difficult. Early recovery, specifically the period immediately after drug detox, poses a number of challenges for the individual. Adding environmental cues to the mix compounds the fight against addiction.
During the study, when rats were subjected to environmental cues paired with cocaine and nicotine, they faced stronger memory of the drug use and therefore later connected the environmental cues with substances. The one-two effect of the environmental cue and the stimuli of the substances later make the drug use harder to treat.
Researchers conclude that while environmental cues can make it challenging to beat addiction, use of this information in better defining cognitive behavioral therapy efforts can help to improve therapy outcomes. If the environmental cues are able to incur such powerful effects during drug use, the same learning process can be used in recovery to elicit a positive outcome.
Sources
University of Guelph. (2019, February 27). Why environmental cues make drug addiction extra hard to beat. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 28, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190227124848.htm
