ABSTRACT
Psychology and its allied behavioural disciplines have been increasingly recognized for their contributions in helping to understand addiction and its treatment. This chapter explores alcohol as a major psychoactive drug. Many of the basic observations about alcohol-behaviour interactions have implications for dependence. It considers various approaches to specific aetiology of alcoholism and its treatment, before looking at drug dependence in general as an addictive process. In the field of psychopharmacology, researchers have found the effects of alcohol a useful tool in the study of fundamental psychological mechanisms, while others have been interested in such research for clinical reasons. The dangers of using a particular drug are often associated with the drug’s potential to cause addiction, or physical dependence as it is commonly referred to. Habituation is the repeated use of a drug because the user finds that each use increases pleasurable feelings or reduces feelings of anxiety, fear, or stress.
