Drug Abuse And Addiction - NIH Office of Science Education

The Brain: Understanding Neurobiology Through the Study of AddictionLike most models, this one has imperfections. The discussion that thisissue may generate among students can be valuable because it causesthem to question drug abuse.• If a total score that equals or goes over the switch value indicatesaddiction, did anyone become addicted to drugs with the firstdrug use?The point values in the game have been assigned so that the playercannot reach the switch value after drawing one choice card. Thiscorrelates with addiction; becoming addicted with one episodeof drug abuse rarely happens.Important note: This is true with the outcome of the game being drugaddic tion if the switch value is reached. This is not true if the designatedout come is death if the switch value is reached. A person can die fromthe first episode of drug abuse. After one use, drugs do not change thebrain suffi ciently to cause addiction. However, drugs can affect otherbody systems and cause them to fail. See Step 9 (on page 111) for amodification of the game to address this. Also, although a person doesnot become addicted to drugs after one use, one episode can cause somechanges to start occurring in the brain. For example, one use of crackcocaine can cause a person to experience cravings for the drug.Figure 4.5: Sample card hand #1. The player had a moderate switch value (theswitch card is a queen). The student elected to draw six choice cards totaling 33 pointsbefore finding out that the risk card had a value of 5. The 38-point total put the scoreover the switch value (35), signifying addiction.108