The NIDA brain disease paradigm: History, resistance and spinoffs

Courtwright, David T.

doi:10.1057/biosoc.2009.3

Cited by 117 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Nutt, 2009). We agree with Courtwright (2010) that those of more conservative views regarding addiction neuroscience see it as strengthening the case for the status quo, or possibly justifying even more punitive policies in order to prevent an epidemic of an acquired 'brain disease'.…”

Section: Compulsory Addiction Treatment For Paternalistic Reasonssupporting

confidence: 62%

“…Indeed, chronicity was the major reason for the hypothesis that addiction was a brain disease in the late nineteenth century (Courtwright, 2010). Physicians who treated alcoholism and opiate dependence in the second half of the nineteenth century reported that their patients often returned to alcohol and opiate use after lengthy periods of abstinence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anticipating possible policy uses of addiction neuroscience research

Hall

Carter

2013

Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy

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Neuroscience research on animals has identified the neurochemical circuitry on which psychoactive drugs of dependence act and produced models of the development of tolerance, elicitation of withdrawal symptoms, and the rapid reinstatement of drug use after abstinence. Human neuroimaging studies have provided support for the hypothesis that similar neurobiological processes are at work in addicted humans. Leading proponents of neurobiological addiction research have argued that it provides strong support for the view that addiction is a chronic brain disease. They also argue that broad acceptance of the model will improve societal attitudes and policies towards addicted persons. We briefly examine the research evidence for the claim that addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disease and discuss the promised advantages of the brain disease model of addiction and the likelihood of their realization. We also discuss the potential costs of social policies advocated on the basis of addiction neuroscience research, namely, advocacy of 'high risk' social policies that are congenial to legal industries that promote the use of addictive commodities; renewed advocacy of legally coerced addiction treatment; and the promotion of research into expensive, high technology, biomedical interventions that aim to treat addiction by directly intervening in 'addicted brains'.

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Section: Compulsory Addiction Treatment For Paternalistic Reasonssupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticipating possible policy uses of addiction neuroscience research

Hall

Carter

2013

Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy

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“…M a n u s c r i p t 3 A growing literature has begun to examine the extent to which neuroscientific explanations of addiction have influenced the views of addiction held by the general public, addiction clinicians and neuroscientists, and addicted persons Dingel, et al, 2011;Hammer, Dingel, Ostergren, Nowakowski, & Koenig, 2012;Hammer, et al, 2013;Meurk, Hall, Morphett, Carter, & Lucke, 2013;Meurk, Partridge, et al, 2014;Netherland, 2011). Although there are some who express concerns about the negative consequences of the BDMA (Hammer, et al, 2013), others suggest that the predicted positive and negative social impacts of the BDMA have been overstated (Courtwright, 2010). Although some aspects of brain-based explanations of addiction are accepted by most people (Meurk, Hall, Morphett, Carter, & Lucke, 2013), these ideas tend to be incorporated into older ideas about addiction, often in idiosyncratic ways.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scepticism and hope in a complex predicament: People with addictions deliberate about neuroscience

Morphett

Carter

Lucke

et al. 2016

International Journal of Drug Policy

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Please cite this article as: Meurk, C., Morphett, K., Carter, A., Weier, M., Lucke, J., and Hall, W.,Scepticism and hope in a complex predicament: people with addictions deliberate about neuroscience, International Journal of Drug Policy (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.drugpo.2016.03.004 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. AbstractBackground According to the 'brain disease model of addiction', addiction is a chronic condition the symptoms of which reflect persistent changes in neural functioning produced by long-term drug use. Scholars have argued both for and against the validity and usefulness of this way of conceptualising addiction, which has been variously described as emancipatory and detrimental to addicted persons. In this paper we explore how people with addictions make sense of the brain disease concept and the extent to which they find it useful. Methods: We conducted 44 semi-structured interviews with persons in treatment for drug and alcohol addiction recruited through a variety of channels. Transcripts were analysed by combining a health identity approach with thematic analysis. Results: We describe participants' understandings of how they became addicted and what role, if any, neurobiological conceptions play in their explanations. Our findings highlight the hopeful and sceptical viewpoints of addicted individuals on the value of addiction neuroscience ideas and neurotechnologies. Conclusions: These viewpoints shed some light on the diverse and divergent ways that people with addictions make sense of neurobiological ideas and technologies. It also describes when, and how, neurobiological explanations and the 'brain disease' model can be helpful to addicted persons. Some of the limitations of the brain disease model become apparent in the complex ways in which neurobiological explanations and labels are incorporated into lay understandings. In order to be more useful to addicted persons, neurobiological explanations should be provided as part of a more complex explanation of addiction and the brain than the BDMA offers, and should not be given a 'disease' label.

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“…Across the 1980s and 1990s this research came to focus increasingly heavily on neuroscientific methods and frameworks. In so doing, new biological truths about the brain -about neurotransmitters and receptor sites for drugs -were created (Vrecko, 2010;Courtwright, 2010). At the same time, the advent of new imaging technologies enabled cheaper and easier study of the brain, without the need for surgical access to human brain tissue (Campbell, 2007).…”

Section: The Rise Of the Neuroscience Of Addictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As historian David Courtwright (2010) points out, although the brain model has achieved cultural prominence as a scientific theory, its clinical influence has so far been limited, and cannot be said to have impacted, as neuroscientists promised, on the stigmatisation of addicts or on prohibitionist drug policy in the United States. Despite these limitations, neuroscience continues to expand into the domain of addiction and compulsive behaviour, taking in socalled behavioural addictions and those that defy strict classification, such as overeating and obesity.…”

Section: The Rise Of the Neuroscience Of Addictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Junk: Overeating and obesity and the neuroscience of addiction

Fraser

2013

Addiction Research & Theory

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The NIDA brain disease paradigm: History, resistance and spinoffs

Cited by 117 publications

References 10 publications

Anticipating possible policy uses of addiction neuroscience research

Anticipating possible policy uses of addiction neuroscience research

Scepticism and hope in a complex predicament: People with addictions deliberate about neuroscience

Junk: Overeating and obesity and the neuroscience of addiction

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