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Individual Differences in Tolerance and Relapse

A Pavlovian Conditioning Perspective

  • Chapter
Determinants of Substance Abuse

Part of the book series: Perspectives on Individual Differences ((PIDF))

Abstract

Environmental stimuli and events are known to affect the occurrence of relapse in detoxified addicts (cf. Hinson & Siegel, 1982). For example, the likelihood of the detoxified addict’s relapsing may be lessened if he or she does not return to the prior drug-taking environment following treatment (Robins, Heizer, & Davis, 1975). One way in which environmental stimuli may affect relapse is suggested by an analysis of the role of environmental stimuli in tolerance. Tolerance refers to a decrease in the magnitude of a drug effect that occurs with repeated administrations of the same dose of the drug. A substantial amount of research demonstrates that environmental stimuli affect the display of tolerance. For example, Mitchell and co-workers (Ferguson & Mitchel, 1969; Adams, Yeh, Woods, & Mitchell, 1969) reported that the expected tolerant response was displayed to the last of a series of morphine injections only if the final injection was administered in the same environmental context as all the prior injections. Siegel and his co-workers (Siegel, 1975a, 1977; Krank, Hinson, & Siegel, 1981; Siegel, Hinson, & Krank, 1978) have proposed an analysis of the role of environmental stimuli in tolerance based on the suggestion by Pavlov (1927) that the administration of a drug constitutes a classical conditioning trial. According to this analysis, the environmental stimuli accompanying drug administration serve as the conditional stimulus (CS) for the drug effect that constitutes the unconditional stimulus (UCS). Repeated administrations of the drug to the organism in the context of the same cues lead to the development of an association between the environmental CS and pharmacological UCS.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 5C2, Canada

    Riley E. Hinson

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

    Mark Galizio

  2. Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

    Stephen A. Maisto

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Hinson, R.E. (1985). Individual Differences in Tolerance and Relapse. In: Galizio, M., Maisto, S.A. (eds) Determinants of Substance Abuse. Perspectives on Individual Differences. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9990-3_4

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