Best Practices for Studying Addiction

• Published in: Handbook of Research Methods in Health Psychology pp. 73 - 86
• Main Authors: Soder, Heather E., Hoffman, Jessica L., de Dios, Constanza, Webber, Troy A.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2021
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Cocaine Negative Urines; Cts; MDD; LPP; Cocaine Dependent Participants; BPD Symptom; Mdma Administration; Random Assignment; Virginia Commonwealth University; EEG Machine; Serotonergic Neurons; Longitudinal Designs; Conditioned Place Preference Paradigms; LPP Amplitude; Small Fixation Cross; Physical Health Complications; Understanding Addiction; Placebo Injection; Drug Problem Severity; Aud Symptom; Adult Male C57BL; Home Cage; Stained Cell Bodies; Cocaine Metabolite; EEG Cap
• ISBN: 1138595349; 9781138595330; 1138595330; 9781138595347
• DOI: 10.4324/9780429488320-8

Socially, addiction can have a toll on the individual’s mental health as well as introduce strain on relationships at home and in the workplace. Further, using drugs and alcohol can lead to serious physical health complications, such as heart and lung disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS, and numerous preventable deaths in the United States. The field of behavioral pharmacology emerged in the 1950s alongside the psychotherapeutic revolution as scientists began to link specific behavioral changes to various drugs, including drugs of abuse. With the development of this new field, the basic understanding of addiction as a sign of moral weakness slowly started to be reframed as a physiological reaction to the drugs. There are a number of advantages to using animal models to study addiction, including the ability to administer drugs that have unknown risk to human participants. Correlational methods, broadly including cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, are commonly used to study addictions.