Biological Model for Smoking Addiction

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  • Created by: Grace
  • Created on: 02-05-13 18:38
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  • Biological model for smoking addiction
      • SUPPORT = Shields = studies 42 MZ twins who were raised apart. The concordance rate was 79% - only 9 pairs were disconcordant. This suggests that genes do have an impact on addiction whether it makes you smoke or a gene such as risk taking
        • Vink et al - found that 44% of initiation was due to genetics and 56% due to the environment - this shows an inconsistency and therefore a lack of reliability.
      • SUPPORT = Thorgeirsson et al - identified a specific gene variant on chromosone 15 that influenced amount of cigarettes smoked a day, dependence and risk of developing disease. Found that those who smoked less than 10 a day were less likely to have that varient of gene than those who smoked more then 10.
        • Suggests genetics make some smokers more likely to become dependent once they start.
        • Why 10? still a high number suggests less than 10 is okay but they still are addicted?
      • Long term = Genetics = Xian et al carried out a twin study to test whether genetics caused failed attempts to quit.. 54% can be attributed to heritability.
      • Short Term - Nicotine = Grunberg found that nicotine withdrawal is associated with irritability and weight gain. A relapse stops the negative effects through the release of nicotine.
    • Reductionist - neglect other determining factors such as social context or peer pressure BUT it does help support treatments by pharmalogical methods - helping them ease of it.
      • No specific gene has been found to make people more susceptible... can we be sure it's just due to genes?


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