Psychological Dependence on Drugs & Alcohol

Finally, the assumption that common areas of construct space exist across the disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience is open to debate. For example, medically oriented researchers might view subclinical negative affect as qualitatively physiological dependence on alcohol rather than quantitatively distinct from diagnosed anxiety disorders. Similarly, it could be argued that dysregulated biological stress responses share little construct space with subjective negative affect and drinking to cope.

This disorder makes changes in the brain that can make drinking very hard to give up. If you have alcohol use disorder, you might feel very discouraged https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/the-importance-of-gratitude-in-recovery/ if you return to drinking. If you’re living with alcohol use disorder, you might be tempted to quit “cold turkey,” or immediately.

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In maintaining abstinence, no significant difference was observed between counselling and other therapies when assessed up to 6-month follow-up. However, bar the 6-month follow-up, these results are based on a single study (OFARRELL1992) whereas in the analyses assessing couples therapies versus other active therapies, more studies were included in the analyses for this outcome. Other therapies (namely couples therapies and coping skills) showed significant benefits over counselling in maintaining abstinence at longer follow-up periods of up to 18 months.

Physical dependence, on the other hand, is when a person’s body adapts to chronic use of alcohol and results in physical symptoms—such as vomiting and diarrhea—when the person stops drinking. That being said, the old assumption that there is a complete separation between the mind (the psychological) and the body (the physical) is both reductive and inaccurate based on our current understanding of how addictions work. It’s true that psychological dependence and physical dependence are different concepts, but there are also some ways in which the two are connected and may lead to alcohol use disorder. For both community reinforcement and family training and five-step intervention, there were no statistically significant differences found between these more intensive interventions and self-help (that is, 12-step self-help groups and guided self-help).

Symptoms

Standard treatment was based on the principles of motivational interviewing, relapse prevention and psychoeducational films, with a focus to support the motivation to seek help for substance-misuse problems. Of the eight included trials, six assessed motivational techniques versus another active intervention met criteria for inclusion. The prevalence of alcohol-use disorders declines with increasing age, but the rate of detection by health professionals may be underestimated in older people because of a lack of clinical suspicion or misdiagnosis (O’Connell et al., 2003). Nevertheless, the proportion of older people drinking above the government’s recommended levels has recently been increasing in the UK. The proportion of men aged 65 to 74 years who drank more than four units per day in the past week increased from 18 to 30% between 1998 and 2008 (Fuller et al., 2009). In women of the same age, the increase in drinking more than three units per day was from 6 to 14%.

Conversely, other recent data suggest a lower risk for dementia in people consuming a few alcoholic beverages a day. This includes a 2022 study showing that in around 27,000 people, consuming up to 40 grams of alcohol (around 2.5 drinks) a day was linked to a lower risk for dementia versus abstinence in adults over age 60. A much larger study of almost 4 million people in Korea noted that mild to moderate alcohol consumption was linked to a lower risk for dementia compared to non-drinking. The study of psychological dependence is ongoing, but as we learn more, we can better theorize and develop new and more successful methods of treatment. The team at Better Addiction Care is dedicated to providing expert insights into addictions of all kinds.

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Once a person starts using drugs or alcohol, even if their body is not yet physically addicted, they might find themselves psychologically addicted, continuing to use the substance because they feel that they want or need it, not because their body is physically craving it. Incorporating prescribed medication can help curb your desire for alcohol or relieve any withdrawal symptoms. It’s crucial to connect with a healthcare or mental health professional to determine the best course of action and if one of the approved medications is right for you. This question should be answered using a randomised controlled design that reports short- and medium-term outcomes (including cost-effectiveness outcomes) of at least 12 months’ duration. Particular attention should be paid to the reproducibility of the treatment model and training and supervision of those providing the intervention to ensure that the results are robust and generalisable. The outcomes chosen should reflect both observer and service user-rated assessments of improvement and the acceptability of the treatment.

The review team conducted a systematic search of RCTs and systematic reviews that assessed the beneficial or detrimental effects of meditation in the treatment of alcohol dependence or harmful alcohol use. Following the literature search, there was an insufficient number of studies remaining to perform an unbiased and comprehensive meta-analysis of meditation for the treatment of alcohol misuse. Therefore, the GDG consensus was that a narrative summary of these studies would be conducted and observational studies would be included in the review. The review team conducted a systematic review of RCTs that assessed the beneficial or detrimental effects of counselling in the treatment of alcohol dependence or harmful alcohol use. The review team conducted a systematic review of RCTs that assessed the beneficial or detrimental effects of TSF in the treatment of alcohol dependence or harmful alcohol use.