Evaluation of the Brain Disease Model of Addiction

Abuse may be described as a sickness that damages a person's brain both structurally and functionally. It's a result of a mix of genetic and environmental factors. The medical community believes that a patient's recovery from addiction necessitates therapy. Anyone may get addicted to the drug due of its immense abuse potential.

NIHDA describes addiction as "a long-term brain condition that is distinguished by the obsessive drug seeking and use, irrespective the negative repercussions" (2008). Because of efforts by the BDMA to eliminate stigma and negative connotations connected with drug use, addicts are now more vulnerable and disadvantaged than they were before. For some people, the term "addict" gives them license to place responsibility for their problems on others. At this point, the critics argue, this is an invitation to relapse. Addicts, on the other hand, may claim that they must accept responsibility for their behavior in order to obtain successful therapy. Addiction, according to the BDMA, is an illness that may be remitted, but a person's addiction will never disappear. Neuroimaging studies have refuted this idea. When we talk about neuroplasticity, we're talking about the brain's capacity to adapt and evolve through time. After being injured or ill, neurons may undergo changes and adaptations.

Animal research by Leshner at the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 found that long-term drug usage activates the brains of addicts, making it impossible for them to quit consuming drugs. After obtaining treatment for their addiction, many addicts relapse. Later neuroimaging experiments by Leshner on addicts show that the reward system in the brain has been "hijacked," proving that addiction is a sickness. Those who deny that addiction is a relapsing illness counter with the argument that many addicts recover on their own, without ever having to go to a treatment facility. Epidemiological studies have indicated that people who fit diagnostic criteria for drug dependency had really been abstaining from drugs for years prior to being questioned.