Theoretical Background
Interpretations of why people with a substance addiction show more reactivity to drug-related stimuli have historically been derived from the framework of classical conditioning. During an individual's history of drug use, certain stimuli, such as environmental contexts or drug paraphernalia, reliably accompany drug administration. It is assumed that these stimuli, by virtue of their pairing with the unconditioned drug stimulus, become conditioned stimuli capable of eliciting conditioned responses in the form of reactions such as increased craving and heart rate. Presumably, these cue-specific reactions reflect motivational processes responsible for continuing drug use as well as relapse for people with an addiction attempting to remain abstinent.
Read more about this topic: Cue Reactivity
Famous quotes containing the words theoretical and/or background:
“The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have—very largely if not entirely—lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)