The Addicted Brain

开始时间: 04/22/2022 持续时间: 7 weeks

所在平台: CourseraArchive 课程类别: 人文 大学或机构: Emory University(埃默里大学) 授课老师： 其他

课程主页: https://www.coursera.org/course/addictedbrain

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课程详情

The course will cover many aspects of addiction, mainly to drugs, but also to the Internet, gambling and other behaviors. Questions that will be addressed include:

• What is addiction? 
  
• How do we study it and what have we learned? 
  
• What makes a drug or activity addicting and what are its problems and toxicities? 
  
• What happens in the brain when someone becomes addicted? 
  
• Who can be an addict, and what are the vulnerability and risk factors?  
  
• How do we treat addicts? 
  
• How does government policy affect addicts?  

A current book will be recommended and various websites will be referred to so that the students can find reliable up-to-date information in the future.

课程大纲

Week 1:
    Overview of drug use and background of the problem
        Definition of drug use/addiction/dependence
        What does the behavior of addiction look like?
        History of drug use
        Statistics of use: alcohol and nicotine are number 1 and 2
        10 Classes of addicting drugs
        Other addictions: gambling, food, internet, sex, etc.

Week 2:
    More on drugs
        Drugs - more detailed info on 10 classes
            e.g., medical marijuana, bath salts
        Concept that drugs have multiple functions
        Drugs in the body: absorption, metabolism, elimination
        Drug testing in urine

Week 3
    Animal models of drug abuse
        The ethics of using animals in drug research
        Animals take drugs just like humans
        Physiology vs. morality

Week 4:
    What drugs do in the brain
        How nerve cells communicate
        Neurotransmission and the synapse
        Components of synaptic transmission    
        Drugs work by interfering with chemical neurotransmission.
        Drug and neurotransmitter receptors
            Nicotine and cocaine as examples
      Medications and vaccines for drug use

Week 5:
    Brain imaging reveals places where drugs act
        Different brain regions have different functions
        Neuroanatomy of key brain systems        
        Pleasure/reward/reinforcing centers in the brain ensure survival
        Drugs affect such centers
        Brain scanners and images
        Consider cocaine and dopamine as examples

Week 6:
    The brain is adaptive and plastic. Learning is the most obvious example
        Long lasting changes in brain revealed by scanners
        Other evidence that the brain is changed by drugs
        Slow return to normal after abstinence
        The slow return explains relapse
        The slow return has implications for treatment

Week 7:
    Vulnerability to drug use and abuse
        What factors dispose us to drug use?
        What factors associate with low or no drug use?
        Idea of vulnerability and individual variation
        Individually different brains produce different levels of vulnerability
        Treatment Approaches

Week 8:
    Government Policy towards drugs and its effects
        Government and the law
        Prisons and drug users
        Just Say No - or - Minimize Harm Done to All
        Legalization vs decriminalization
        Review of entire course

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