Feeding the addiction: Narrowing of goals to habits
Publication: European Neuropsychopharmacology
J.R. Breedon, H. Ziauddeen, J. Stochl, K.D. Ersche
24 November 2020
This research investigates the underlying mechanism of addictive behaviour as exemplified by cocaine addiction, and how it impacts on other behaviours such as eating.
Cocaine is adept at being both highly pleasurable and highly habit-forming and both processes are involved in the development of addiction. But are these behavioural changes specific to just cocaine consumption or do they impact other behaviours? This is an interesting question because food consumption is a paradigmatic example of behaviour that can be dominated by both deliberate (so-called goal-directed) and habitual control. As an example, people on diets will exert a high degree of control over their calorific and nutritional intake (‘goal directed’) only to find themselves falling back into old patterns of eating (‘habits’). This is an important question to ask because what we eat has clear and direct consequences for our health; if cocaine addiction has detrimental implications for food consumption, this will have health consequences, beyond the direct consequence of cocaine use.
The researchers presented participants with pictures of food and asked them to rate how much they were willing to pay for them, and how much they wanted to eat the foods. In addition they used questionnaires to investigate both the reasons why cocaine-addicted individuals use cocaine, and the factors influencing their food-related choices.
The results suggest that cocaine addiction narrows the goals of individuals away from ‘normal’ motivators like food, and diverts it towards cocaine. Further, the results suggest that food behaviour in cocaine addiction is more habitual, supporting the hypothesis that the habits developed are wide-reaching and affect behaviours beyond cocaine.
These results will be of interest to those working with individuals with cocaine addiction – they suggest that more attention should be paid to the eating habits of those affected. Further they add support for the ‘habit theory’ of addiction, and suggest that further research into treatments for cocaine addiction should consider the possibility of habits training, that is, methods of directing this ‘habit bias’ towards healthier, more meaningful, activities.