Addiction and Self-Medication

[reeay]

To think it took science this long to understand something so fundamental as "If an individual feel trapped it will do whatever it takes to feel free" is daunting. Setting/environment will always play a large part in how we deal with consumption of virtually anything.

Science are, in quite some areas, very far away in regards of 'wisdom'. Researching common wisdom is also a rather ardous task for science in general with the outlook it has today...

Actually, the significance of environmental factors in behavior has been understood for some time now. The significance of this particular research is that it has now illustrated the limitations of the theory that negates environment as a significant factor in understanding drug use (but here it's only rat behavior).

Can you see the social justice aspect of deducing behavior to merely physiological factors like addiction? If our social policies subscribe to drug use as merely being physiological addiction, it would limit our ability to take into consideration the role of poverty,thus we may not see policies that target poverty in treatment. Empirical evidence (which is the basic requirement for giving rationale to how we treat problems) is necessary, even if it seems intuitive or common sense. We have one theory that takes a very narrow perspective, but now that we have data on an alternative theory, so we can broaden our scope of treatment.

I would suggest to people who are critical of empirical evidence/research to also find the strength in this type of activity. That would create more balance than being just dismissive of the scientific process. The point of scientific process is to set a standard in how we understand a phenomenon or to demonstrate the validity and utility of theories on human behavior. Without this minimal standard we would not have a coherent way of understanding things. You will have people attributing psychological phenomenon as something purely physiological bc to them environmental factors are not significant at all. And maybe some would attribute drug use behavior as being a psychic attack or whatnot.