According to Statistics on Drug Misuse: England (2019), 20.3% of young adults in the UK have taken an illicit drug from the year 2018 to 2019. Drug use is becoming a problem in the UK, and risk factors for addiction can easily turn regular drinking on the weekend into alcoholism, or a quick smoke with friends into nicotine dependencies. But why do people become addicted? And more interestingly, why do some people get addicted, while some others do not? Risk factors for addiction play an important role in the development of addiction.
Explore our app and discover over 50 million learning materials for free.
Lerne mit deinen Freunden und bleibe auf dem richtigen Kurs mit deinen persönlichen Lernstatistiken
Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenAccording to Statistics on Drug Misuse: England (2019), 20.3% of young adults in the UK have taken an illicit drug from the year 2018 to 2019. Drug use is becoming a problem in the UK, and risk factors for addiction can easily turn regular drinking on the weekend into alcoholism, or a quick smoke with friends into nicotine dependencies. But why do people become addicted? And more interestingly, why do some people get addicted, while some others do not? Risk factors for addiction play an important role in the development of addiction.
Fig. 1 - There are risk factors for addiction.
Addiction is a biopsychosocial disorder that emerges from the use of alcohol and drugs. The term biopsychosocial resembles the idea that there can be biological, social and psychological factors influencing addiction. An individual with an addiction is dependent on a given substance. The cessation of the consumption of such a substance evokes withdrawal symptoms in the person. The dependency on substances can either be psychological or physical.
Psychological dependence refers to the emotional and cognitive signs that appear during phases of withdrawal.
Examples of psychological dependence on a substance include feeling emotions of irritability, anxiety and mood swings, among other symptoms.
Physical dependence refers to the physiological signs that appear during phases of withdrawal.
Physiological signs include changes in heart rate and blood pressure, fatigue, difficulty sleeping and weight loss.
Certain risk factors exist that exacerbate the risk of developing a drug addiction. These include genetic risk factors, stress and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), personality risk factors, and family and peer influences.
Some can be addicted to nicotine, for example, and consume it regularly. The person will most likely develop a dependency on the substance, which will evoke withdrawal symptoms when the drug is not consumed.
Psychological dependence can evoke withdrawal symptoms such as anger, frustration, difficulty concentrating, depression and restlessness. Physical dependence can evoke withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, coughing, constipation and dizziness.
The DSM-V contains a substance use disorder (SUD) diagnosis. The diagnosis is used to assess whether an individual presents a disorder, as well as how severely. The 11 diagnostic criteria fall under the categories of impaired control, physical dependence, social problems and risky use.
Although it may be tempting to state that individuals freely choose to start consuming substances, psychological research has established that there are risk factors for addiction. Let's take a closer look at this.
The characteristics that make a person more likely to consume certain substances, and thus suffer from an addiction disorder, are called risk factors. The risk factors for addiction that psychological research has identified are genetic vulnerability, stress, personality and family and peer Influences.
Before we delve into each risk factor, it is important we understand how studies, and the subsequent issues with research, support and oppose certain theories in addiction.
Research has shown that genes are a risk factor in the development of addiction disorders. It refers to the inherited characteristics or genes that make a person more likely to develop an addiction. The evidence of the role that genetics play in the development of addiction disorders comes from twin and adoption studies.
Van den Bree et al. (1998) investigated genetic and environmental influences on drug addiction and dependence in twins (both male and female). They recruited participants through treatment programmes for drug and alcohol abuse.
They found genetic influences, particularly in the case of males and for clinical diagnoses of abuse and dependence, and found environmental influences impacted use more so than abuse and dependence.
Slutske et al. (2010) noticed that in families where there was one addiction problem, there were likely to be more cases of addiction issues. This could either be because of the shared genetic information or the shared environment of the families influences addiction disorders.
They carried out a twin study.
The results failed to provide evidence that environmental factors influence the later development of gambling behaviours. Genes, however, did influence the gambling behaviour of twins.
Although results did not suggest that genes were fully responsible for the development of addiction behaviours, they can be taken as evidence that genetic information plays a role in gambling behaviours.
The study, however, was conducted in Australia specifically as there is a high gambling rate there, so culturally the results may not be generalisable.
Fig. 2 - Picture of an individual playing a slot machine
Vink et al. (2005) investigated 1,572 Dutch twin pairs with a mean age of 30.5. The study tested whether genetic or environmental influences could explain smoking behaviours in the sample by addressing smoking initiation and nicotine dependence.
These results are further evidence that genes make individuals more vulnerable to the development of addiction issues.
Taking into consideration the evidence provided from twin studies, Lerman and colleagues wanted to further understand the genetic influence on smoking initiation.
The study investigated the risk of smoking initiation, based on two genes:
Their results indicated that individuals with SLC6A3 were less likely to start smoking and this effect increased in the presence of a D2 receptor. This suggests that there is an effect of gene interaction in smoking initiation. Looking further into the role of SLC6A3 on smoking, researchers found that those who presented the SLC6A3 genotype were less likely to have started smoking by the age of 16.
Stress is the response in which individuals feel emotional and physical tension. Stress can impact how people behave and there is evidence that people who experience high levels of stress are more vulnerable to presenting addiction issues. Evidence of the relationship between stress and addiction comes from studies investigating individuals diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Cleck and Bendy (2008) reviewed stress and its association with addiction. They concluded that stress is a key factor (amongst a number of other factors) in facilitating reward associated with initial drug exposure, and it increases both cravings for drugs and relapse rates into drug-seeking behaviours.
Chasser (2016) carried out a study to investigate the demographic characteristics of adolescents that presented addiction issues.
In this cross-sectional study, 195 young individuals were interviewed. They all met the criteria for substance abuse disorder. The results from the study suggested that 59% of the participants had PTSD symptoms before their first consumption of substances.
Evidence from Chasser (2016) suggests that suffering from stress makes individuals vulnerable to the later development of addiction issues.
Some researchers have suggested the existence of an "addictive personality", which posits that there are certain personality traits common to those suffering from addiction.
Personality refers to a person's characteristics that make him/her unique and that are stable over time
The addictive personality hypothesis suggests that personality traits such as impulsivity, sensation seeking, nonconformity and social deviance, are common to those developing addiction problems.
The personality hypothesis has been criticised by psychologists for being deterministic and for not considering individuals' ability to freely choose their actions. According to the theory, everyone presenting a given personality profile would then develop a problem with addiction, which is not necessarily the case.
Although the "addictive personality hypothesis" may not be the most accurate theory, there is evidence of the link between personality and addiction (Eysenck, 1999).
Eysenck (1997) explored the addictive personality. He noted an interesting case of US soldiers in Vietnam who smoked opium in an attempt to deal with the stress of war.
He referenced the three major dimensions of personality, Psychoticism (P), Neuroticism (N), and Extraversion (E) (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985). He noted that psychoticism in particular has been correlated with addictive personalities. Eysenck (1997) also went on to discuss how excessive dopamine could be the reason behind this.
Abadi et al. (2018) looked into the personality profiles of substance abusers. They interviewed 100 addicts who consumed one of five different types of substances. In this way, the study presented five groups of 20 individuals each. They based their study on the Big Five Personality Model, using the NEO Personality Inventory.
The Big-Five Personality Model was finalised by Costa and McCrae (1992). It is one of the most widely used personality models and suggests that every individual presents five personality characteristics to a certain degree. The characteristics are:
When trying to remember the five personality traits, refer to them as the acronym, OCEAN (Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism).
The results of the study showed that different personality characteristics were associated with the use of certain substances. For example:
In sum, there seems to be a relationship between personality and the later development of addiction issues. However, this relationship is not as simple as the "addictive personality" suggests.
Addiction has also been explained in terms of the learning theory, which suggests that behaviour is learned by external forces, such as observing others engage in it. Based on this approach, research has established that addictive behaviours can be explained based on social influence.
Reith and Dobbie (2011) designed a study to investigate the social and cultural context of gamblers. More specifically, the study looked into how individuals start their addictive behaviours.
The results of the study suggested that individuals were not born gamblers, but that gambling was a learned behaviour. Even more, the results of the interview analysis supported the idea that individuals were introduced to gambling through their social networks, such as family and friends.
Risk factors for addiction include social networks such as family and peer groups, and other factors such as stress, personality, and genetic vulnerability.
Five main factors make someone more susceptible to addiction: family, peers, stress, genetic susceptibility, and personality. It is crucial to know they can work together to make someone even more susceptible to addiction.
Psychologists state addiction is a biopsychosocial disorder that a number of characteristics can influence, including stress, personality, peer groups, family, and biological factors.
Three examples of factors influencing the risk for addiction are stress, a genetic vulnerability to addiction, and the influence of peers. Other risk factors exist.
Risk factors in the context of addiction are characteristics that make certain individuals more likely to become addicts.
Is there such a thing as an addictive personality?
This is up for debate. Recent research disputes the idea of an addictive personality, as many other factors influence the risk of addiction, and personality is too complex to be studied in such a form.
Which type of stress disorder has been linked to addiction?
Post-traumatic stress disorder.
What are risk factors for addiction?
Risk factors for addiction are characteristics that make a person more likely to consume certain substances and suffer from an addiction disorder.
These include genetic vulnerabilities, family and social influences, personality traits, and stress and PTSD risk factors.
Do several risk factors work together to make someone even more susceptible to addiction?
Yes
Why are peer groups a risk factor for addiction?
Peer groups are a risk factor for addiction because peers act as role models for potentially addictive behaviour such as drug and alcohol use.
True or False: Addiction has genetic risk factors.
True
Already have an account? Log in
Open in AppThe first learning app that truly has everything you need to ace your exams in one place
Sign up to highlight and take notes. It’s 100% free.
Save explanations to your personalised space and access them anytime, anywhere!
Sign up with Email Sign up with AppleBy signing up, you agree to the Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy of StudySmarter.
Already have an account? Log in
Already have an account? Log in
The first learning app that truly has everything you need to ace your exams in one place
Already have an account? Log in