Addiction Psychology

Addiction psychology studies addiction, defined by psychologists as a loss of self-control driven by a powerful, rewarding effect that is difficult to overcome, and defined by the American Society of Addiction Medicine as a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, environment and an individual's life experiences. The field works with two common models of addiction: the disease model, which classifies addiction as a diagnosable disease attributable to a chemical imbalance tied to genetics or environment, and the choice model, which treats addiction as arising from voluntary action studied through the brain's reward, stress and memory systems. The American Psychological Association's Division 50, the Society of Addiction Psychology, promotes research, professional training and clinical practice across the range of addictive behaviors, including problematic use of alcohol, nicotine and other drugs as well as gambling, eating, spending and sexual behavior, while Division 28, Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse, promotes research on the effects of drugs on behavior. Early contributors to the field include the physicians Sigmund Freud and William Halsted, who conducted cocaine research together in the 1880s and inadvertently became dependent on the drug themselves in the process.