PSYCH 1X03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Drug Tolerance, Classical Conditioning, Analgesic
11 Oct 2018
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Document Summary
Drug tolerance: decreased effectiveness of a drug such as morphine over the course of repeated administration. Learning plays an important role in the development and maintenance of drug tolerance. Morphine analgesic tolerance: its situation specificity supports a pavlovian conditioning model. What is proposed in the current study however is a model of drug tolerance for analgesic morphine that is founded on the principles of classical conditioning. The environmental context of drug administration is a vital factor in the development of drug tolerance and the mechanisms of drug overdose, and central to the conditioning theory of tolerance being supported. The stimulation provided by the drug acts as an unconditional stimulus, and the counteraction acts as the conditional response. The environment of drug administration, however, becomes associated with the process of administration and counteraction. Over repeated trails of administration in a particular environment, the environment becomes associated with counteraction.
