4. Treating Addiction

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About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies to treat addiction, focusing in particular on: (i) pharmacological therapies for treating addiction, which are primarily maintenance therapies; (ii) behaviour interventions which rely on the assumption that addictive behaviours are learned and can be unlearned by changing the consequences of the behaviours; (iii) sensitisation within behavioural interventions, as divided into overt (noxious stimulus paired with behaviour) and covert (noxious stimulus paired with imagery relating to the behaviour); (iv) the process of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which involves learning ‘correct’ behaviours to avoid the unwanted behaviour (v) three key coping strategies implemented in CBT.

Course

In this course, Dr Lauren Burgeno (University of Oxford) explores substance use disorders. In the first lecture, we think about drug addiction, a commonly used term which refers to a substance use disorder, and how it is studied. In the second lecture, we think about the biological underpinnings of addiction. In the third lecture, we think about factors which contribute to someone’s susceptibility to addiction after engaging in substance use. Next, we think about some pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies implemented to treat drug addiction. In the fifth and final lecture, we think about how harm reduction policies can be used to help alleviate the suffering of individuals with substance use disorders and improve their communities.

Lecturer

Dr Lauren Burgeno is a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford. Dr Burgeno’s research interests are in the mechanisms by which striatal acetylcholine gates cue-elicited dopamine release and how this contributes to addiction related behaviour. Some of Dr Burgeno’s recent publications include 'Time-dependent assessment of stimulus-evoked regional dopamine release' (2019) and 'Genetic isolation of hypothalamic neurons that regulate context-specific male social behaviour' (2016).