Cross addiction refers to the presence of two or more addictions - a common trait among addicts. Many cross addicted patients develop secondary dependencies in an effort to deal with their Cross addiction refers to the presence of two or more addictions - a common trait among addicts. Many cross addicted patients develop secondary dependencies in an effort to deal with their primary addiction..
What are the somatic and psychological factors that cause a cross addiction after primary addiction?
"The dopamine dysregulation in the limbic system of the brain seen in addiction is not able to tell the difference between addictive drugs. Therefore, if someone who has addiction is given another addictive drug for whatever reason, the individual with addiction is being set up for relapse into their drug of choice".psychologytoday.com/blog/where-addiction-meets-your-brain/
Dr. Aghakhani, I'll assume your question refers to *substance* addictions and cross-addictions amongst substances - if you are referring to all behavioral addictions (e.g. gambling, sex, etc) then it gets far more complicated and in some cases more interesting. We have not found, thus far, any somatic predictors that a substance user will commence addictive behavior beyond the initial substance. Psychological factors, however, can be quite predictive. The main factor, however, is the length of time the patient has been (mis)using the substance -- the longer the time, the more likely the patient is to meet DSM criteria for addictive behavior with regard to other substance. At least at this point, with limited longitudinal data, the psychological predictive factors are most often the very same ones that are predictors of lapse to the original substance in abstinent patients - that is, (1) extreme psychosocial stressors [as perceived by the patient] and (2) access to the substance. In other words, at this early stage, it seems that the same psychological factors that are predictive of use of the primary substance are predictive of the addition of a new substance. Again, I reiterate that there is insufficient data to draw this conclusion with high probability at this point, but this seems to be the trend - patients add additional substances when enough time has elapsed so they are no longer getting the relief (e.g. tolerance levels are high) from psychological factors that caused the original substance use in the first place.
From what I've read (haven't created/added my research to my new mac after 20 pc crashes. The best explaination I've ever read deals with Martlett and social psychologists. In my opinion, based on my research, I believe that the phenomenon occurs from more of a psycho-social versus biological point of view. Of course, there are biological explanation, but none have been verified to my knowledge.
One factor is tolerance. For example, an individual addicted to prescription pain killers pay about $30 to $40 for a single pill vs. a much larger (comparatively) larger dose of heroin. As the tolerance grows and the wallet empties, individuals not only search for an alternative for both psychological reasons (depression, anxiety, as well as somatic effects from somatic comorbidity and the effect of withdrawal).
From a social perspective, secondary addictions are generally, in my opinion, are somewhat a replacement for a more socially acceptable form to reach some "mind-altering" or rather somatic/psychological relief. This is more likely brought about the presence of friends or environments reminiscent of classical condition stimulus.
Of course there have been publications that deal with these theories from a biological change in brain chemistry and that is probably a factor and I am not dismissing them. As the prior researcher's answer, adjunct medication is generally administered to curb or reduce the cravings of either the primary or secondary addiction. However, these are not well understood as some of these disorders are pre-existing Axis I and/or disorders, but again, these are not well understood because of all of the health psychology vs. cognitive and behavioral correlations.
These are just my thoughts and based on large bodies of work with references can be found in some of the research I have posted.
I hope this helps.
Take care.
A different take on addiction is delivered by Bruce Alexander in his 2008 book "The Globalization of Addiction". While he does not directly address cross-addiction in his book, it's easy to see how it would fit within his theory.
Here is the link to a speech Alexander gave that contains salient points of the book. Maybe you find it interesting.http://www.brucekalexander.com/articles-speeches/277-rise-and-fall-of-the-official-view-of-addiction-6
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