Essay on The Coorelation between Drug Tolerance and the...

The Coorelation between Drug Tolerance and the Environment When considering the dynamics of brain and behavior, another component that enters the equation is environment. If brain equals behavior then changes to either should result in an altercation to the other component. The question that arises is whether a change in the environment produces change in brain chemistry and therefore, behavior. A connection between brain, behavior and environment may be observed in the context of drug tolerance. There are a collection of questions that seem essential to consider when attempting to correlate the brains development of an observable drug tolerance and the environment. †¢ Does the environment affect drug tolerance? How? †¢ What†¦show more content†¦A delayed recovery to the initial stimuli would be expected if the receptors were numerically or physically altered. However, after terminating a drug treatment, a delayed recovery to the initial stimuli has not been observed. Instead, the body readapts to the drug-free state (2). Furthermore, reactions that are almost directly opposite to the desired effect of the drug are observed. These reactions are termed withdrawal symptoms and are observed when no drugs are administered and compensatory processes operate unopposed (2). If the nervous system provides compensatory responses, then the question arises as to whether environmental cues initiate the response. Environmental cues that initiate responses were observed by the Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936). Pavlov made initial observations pertaining to classical conditioning. Pavlov correlated environmental cues and physiological changes as he observed dogs salivating in response to a collection of cues that signaled feeding time. Without the stimulus of food present, there was an observable response to the anticipated stimuli as the dogs salivated in preparation for the emanate arrival of food (3). Siegel et al. (1982) applied Pavlovs model of classical conditioning to the administration of drugs (4). Siegel et al. observed that the anticipated stimuli signaled by environmental cues provided an additional drug tolerance. An experiment was designed with