L'addiction au XXIe siècle

Abstract

The United States presents a series of paradoxes in (1) its understanding of addiction and its etiology, (2) trends in addiction treatment, (3) addiction's likely prevalence in the coming century. At the same time as American science reduces addiction into brain impulses resulting from drug use, an equally powerful tendency is for Americans to think of compulsive involvements of all types (e.g., with video games) as potentially addictive. While the neurobiological model of addiction holds out the promise of pharmacotherapy and other medical treatments, the greatest growth in treatment practices (in addition to the 12-step approach, itself non-medical) is in cognitive-behavioral-environmental approaches. While the hope for medical cures and inoculations for addiction prevails, almost no one in the U.S. believes addiction will be conquered, or even reduced.