November 2016
We continue what we wrote yesterday and speak about two ways to the reward system: a long one and a short one. However, let’s first separate alcohol dependence from addiction. Conceptually, the definition of alcohol abuse through the addiction shows the American tradition tendency that led to the exclusion of this definition of the alcohol dependence from DSM-5 system. The arguments of this position are clear to me. If there’s a dependence, from what, then?
TABLE 1.2. The problem drinking scale (PDS) compared with other scales for diagnosing alcoholism.
(from
Vaillant, George E. (1995): The natural history of alcoholism revisited. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press.
)
Speaking about substance-related disorders, we may say they target mainly the reward system. I want to remark this structure’s strange name from the natural sciences’ viewpoint. However, the reward system is described neurobiologically with the help of chemical and physiological process of the brain. Dopamine, serotonin and other substances, which are referred to in the biochemical analysis of the reward system don’t associate with fanfares, awards and other means of human reward for his or her contribution to this or that community