carter@gatech.UUCP (W. Carter Bullard) (04/06/84)
I'm a new 'net.med' reader, with an MS in neuropharmacology. Upon seeing the
lastest postings on the caffiene addiction conversations, I would like to
interject by saying that addiction does not necessarily have to have a
withdrawl component. This is a convenient classification that was adopted
way back when. An interesting definition that has been evolving for some
time now is primarily based on a 'Seeking' behavior that is observed
in many addiction experiments, such as the self-stimulation studies
in primates , opiate addiction, on and on and on. Physiological vs
psychological really doesn't have any meaning in research pharmacology except
to describe whether physical withdrawl is present or not, and probably shouldn't
be used at all to describe types of addiction, as these manifestations have
nothing to do with the basic mechanisms for drug seeking.
Caffiene is a real interesting compound. And yes some of the reasons why colas
are 'fun' is because of the caffiene but don't forget the SUGAR. It probably
has more of a conditional effect than the caffiene. If you see people drinking
diet colas, they generally have a long history of sugared cola drinking and are
only trying to maintain the behavior. Also the carbonic acid, the soda part,
has a significant action on the CNS and can act as a conditional stimulus as
well.
--
W. Carter Bullard
School of ICS, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet: Carter @ GaTech ARPA: Carter.GaTech @ CSNet-Relay
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