Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T21:41:20.127Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 12 - Substance Abuse and Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2022

By
Paul St John-Smith  and
Riadh Abed
Edited by
Riadh Abed  and
Paul St John-Smith
Riadh Abed
Affiliation:
Mental Health Tribunals, Ministry of Justice, UK
Paul St John-Smith
Affiliation:
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Get access

Summary

An evolutionary perspective on drug use and addiction poses two primary questions that complement the proximate models of mainstream medicine. These are: why are humans motivated to repetitively seek out and consume non-nutritional substances, and why do plants (which are the sources of the majority of such chemicals) manufacture substances that can alter the functioning of the human nervous system? We propose that these questions can have a real bearing on our understanding of the phenomena of abuse and addiction that complements models of proximate causation. The evolutionary perspective recognises that addiction can only arise through the interaction of substances with evolutionarily ancient systems designed to promote the pursuit of rewards associated with increased fitness in the ancestral environment. Thus, neglecting the phylogenetic history and function of such systems necessarily results in an incomplete understanding of this phenomenon. Evolution can also help us to understand human uniqueness and especially the role of cumulative culture and gene–culture co-evolution in shaping the human body and mind. Hence, the evolutionary perspective enables a deeper understanding of the human vulnerability to substance abuse and addiction. The chapter concludes by considering the clinical and public policy implications of the evolutionary perspective presented.

Keywords

addictionco-evolutionary arms racedrug misuseevolutionmismatchpharmacophagyplant neurotoxins
Type
Chapter
Information
Evolutionary Psychiatry
Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
 , pp. 186 - 201
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aynacioglu, A. S., Sachse, C., Bozkurt, A., Kortunay, S., Nacak, M., Schröder, T., Kayaalp, S. O., Roots, I. and Brockmöller, J., 1999. Low frequency of defective alleles of cytochrome P450 enzymes 2C19 and 2D6 in the Turkish population. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 66, 185–192.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bailey, S. L., Pollock, N. K., Martin, C. S. and Lynch, K. G., 1999. Risky sexual behaviors among adolescents with alcohol use disorders. Journal of Adolescent Health, 25, 179–181.Google Scholar
Barron, A. B., Søvik, E. and Cornish, J. L., 2010. The roles of dopamine and related compounds in reward-seeking behavior across animal phyla. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 4, 163.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benowitz, N. L., Lessov‐Schlaggar, C. N., Swan, G. E. and IIIJacob, P., 2006. Female sex and oral contraceptive use accelerate nicotine metabolism. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 79, 480–488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berridge, V., 1997. Addiction history. Addiction, 92, 253–255.Google Scholar
Borkowska, B. and Pawlowski, B., 2014. Recreational drug use and fluctuating asymmetry: testing the handicap principle. Evolutionary Psychology, 12, 769–782.Google Scholar
Choi, S. Y., Koh, K. H. and Jeong, H., 2013. Isoform-specific regulation of cytochromes P450 expression by estradiol and progesterone. Drug Metabolism and Disposition, 41, 263–269.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cottrell, G. A., 1967. Occurrence of dopamine and noradrenaline in the nervous tissue of some invertebrate species. British Journal of Pharmacology and Chemotherapy, 29, 63–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Danielson, P. Á., 2002. The cytochrome P450 superfamily: biochemistry, evolution and drug metabolism in humans. Current Drug Metabolism, 3, 561–597.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Darwin, C. R., 1890. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Dempsey, D., Jacob, P. and Benowitz, N. L., 2002. Accelerated metabolism of nicotine and cotinine in pregnant smokers. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 301, 594–598.Google Scholar
DiFranza, J. R., Wellman, R. J., Sargent, J. D., Weitzman, M., Hipple, B. J. and Winickoff, J. P., 2006. Tobacco promotion and the initiation of tobacco use: assessing the evidence for causality. Pediatrics, 117, e1237–e1248.Google Scholar
Dobkin de Rios, M., 1990. Hallucinogens: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Ducci, F. and Goldman, D., 2012. The genetic basis of addictive disorders. Psychiatric Clinics, 35, 495–519.Google Scholar
Durrant, R., Adamson, S., Todd, F. and Sellman, D., 2009. Drug use and addiction: evolutionary perspective. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 43, 1049–1056.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2012. Annual Report 2012: The State of the Drug Problem in Europe. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.Google Scholar
FitzGibbon, C. D. and Fanshawe, J. H., 1988. Stotting in Thomson’s gazelles: an honest signal of condition. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 23, 69–74.Google Scholar
Goodman, A., 1990. Addiction: definition and implications. British Journal of Addiction, 85, 1403–1408.Google Scholar
Gromyko, D., 2015. Extent and trends in illicit drug use. In: Lader, D. (ed.), Drug Misuse: Findings from the 2014/15 Crime Survey for England and Wales, 2nd ed. London: Home Office, pp. 1–7. Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/462885/drug-misuse-1415.pdfGoogle Scholar
Guerra-Doce, E., 2015. Psychoactive substances in prehistoric times: examining the archaeological evidence. Time and Mind, 8, 91–112.Google Scholar
Hagen, E. H. and Tushingham, S., 2019. The prehistory of psychoactive drug use. In: Henley, T. B., Rossano, M. J. and Kardas, E. P. (eds.), Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology: Psychology in Prehistory. New York: Routledge, pp. 471–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagen, E. H., Roulette, C. J. and Sullivan, R. J., 2013. Explaining human recreational use of ‘pesticides’: the neurotoxin regulation model of substance use vs. the hijack model and implications for age and sex differences in drug consumption. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 4, 142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hagen, E. H., Sullivan, R. J., Ahmed, S. and Pickard, H., 2018. The evolutionary significance of drug toxicity over reward. In: Pickard, H. and Ahmed, S. H. (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Science of Addiction. New York: Routledge, pp. 102–120.Google Scholar
Hall, F. S., Drgonova, J., Jain, S. and Uhl, G. R., 2013. Implications of genome wide association studies for addiction: are our a priori assumptions all wrong? Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 140, 267–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haug, S., Núñez, C. L., Becker, J., Gmel, G. and Schaub, M. P., 2014. Predictors of onset of cannabis and other drug use in male young adults: results from a longitudinal study. BMC Public Health, 14, 1202.Google Scholar
Huffman, M. A., 1997. Current evidence for self‐medication in primates: a multidisciplinary perspective. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 104, 171–200.3.0.CO;2-7>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, K. P., 2016. A review of genome-wide association studies of stimulant and opioid use disorders. Molecular Neuropsychiatry, 2, 37–45.Google Scholar
Kendler, K. S., Myers, J. and Prescott, C. A., 2007. Specificity of genetic and environmental risk factors for symptoms of cannabis, cocaine, alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine dependence. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64, 1313–1320.Google Scholar
Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K. R. and Walters, E. E., 2005. Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 593–602.Google Scholar
Khantzian, E. J., 2003. The self-medication hypothesis revisited: the dually diagnosed patient. Primary Psychiatry, 10, 47–54.Google Scholar
Klingemann, H. and Sobell, L. C., 2007. Promoting Self-Change from Addictive Behaviors. Berlin: Springer Science+Business Media.Google Scholar
Laycock, W. A., 1978. Coevolution of poisonous plants and large herbivores on rangelands. Rangeland Ecology & Management/Journal of Range Management Archives, 31, 335–342.Google Scholar
Lewis, W. H. and Elvin‐Lewis, M. P. F., 1977. Medical Botany: Plants Affecting Man’s Health. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Mahase, E., 2020. Drug deaths: England and Wales see highest number since records began. BMJ, 371, m3988.Google Scholar
Maridass, M. and De Britto, A. J., 2008. Origins of plant derived medicines. Ethnobotanical Leaflets, 2008, 44.Google Scholar
Merlin, M. D., 2003. Archaeological evidence for the tradition of psychoactive plant use in the old world. Economic Botany, 57, 295–323.Google Scholar
Mummert, A., Esche, E., Robinson, J. and Armelagos, G. J., 2011. Stature and robusticity during the agricultural transition: evidence from the bioarchaeological record. Economics & Human Biology, 9, 284–301.Google Scholar
Muñoz-Cuevas, F. J., Athilingam, J., Piscopo, D. and Wilbrecht, L., 2013. Cocaine-induced structural plasticity in frontal cortex correlates with conditioned place preference. Nature Neuroscience, 16, 1367–1369.Google Scholar
Nesse, R. M., 1994. An evolutionary perspective on substance abuse. Ethology and Sociobiology, 15, 339–348.Google Scholar
Nesse, R. M., 2019. The smoke detector principle: signal detection and optimal defense regulation. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 2019, 1.Google Scholar
Nesse, R. M. and Berridge, K. C., 1997. Psychoactive drug use in evolutionary perspective. Science, 278, 63–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Orsolini, L., Francesconi, G., Papanti, D., Giorgetti, A. and Schifano, F., 2015. Profiling online recreational/prescription drugs’ customers and overview of drug vending virtual marketplaces. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 30, 302–318.Google Scholar
Orsolini, L., St John-Smith, P., McQueen, D., Papanti, D., Corkery, J. and Schifano, F., 2017. Evolutionary considerations on the emerging subculture of the e-psychonauts and the novel psychoactive substances: a comeback to the shamanism? Current Neuropharmacology, 15, 731–737.Google Scholar
Panksepp, J., 2004. Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Patel, S., Nag, M. K., Daharwal, S. J., Singh, M. R. and Singh, D., 2013. Plant toxins: an overview. Research Journal of Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics, 5, 283–288.Google Scholar
Patil, C. L., Abrams, E. T., Steinmetz, A. R. and Young, S. L., 2012. Appetite sensations and nausea and vomiting in pregnancy: an overview of the explanations. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 51, 394–417.Google Scholar
Pletsch, P. K., Pollak, K. I., Peterson, B. L., Park, J., Oncken, C. A., Swamy, G. K. and Lyna, P., 2008. Olfactory and gustatory sensory changes to tobacco smoke in pregnant smokers. Research in Nursing & Health, 31, 31–41.Google Scholar
Polimeni, J., 2012. Shamans among Us: Schizophrenia, Shamanism and the Evolutionary Origins of Religion. Morrisville, NC: Lulu Press.Google Scholar
Reyna, V. F. and Farley, F., 2006. Risk and rationality in adolescent decision making: implications for theory, practice, and public policy. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 7, 1–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richardson, G. B., Chen, C. C., Dai, C. L., Swoboda, C. M., Nedelec, J. L. and Chen, W. W., 2017. Substance use and mating success. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38, 48–57.Google Scholar
Roberts, C., Lepps, H., Strang, J. and Singelton, N., 2014. Drug use and dependence. NHS Digital. Retrieved from https://files.digital.nhs.uk/pdf/3/k/adult_psychiatric_study_ch11_web.pdfGoogle Scholar
Roulette, C. J., Kazanji, M., Breurec, S. and Hagen, E. H., 2016. High prevalence of cannabis use among Aka foragers of the Congo Basin and its possible relationship to helminthiasis. American Journal of Human Biology, 28, 5–15.Google Scholar
Roulette, C. J., Mann, H., Kemp, B. M., Remiker, M., Roulette, J. W., Hewlett, B. S., Kazanji, M., Breurec, S., Monchy, D., Sullivan, R. J. and Hagen, E. H., 2014. Tobacco use vs. helminths in Congo basin hunter-gatherers: self-medication in humans? Evolution and Human Behavior, 35, 397–407.Google Scholar
Saah, T., 2005. The evolutionary origins and significance of drug addiction. Harm Reduction Journal, 2, 1–7.Google Scholar
Schifano, F., Orsolini, L., Duccio Papanti, G. and Corkery, J. M., 2015. Novel psychoactive substances of interest for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 14, 15–26.Google Scholar
Solecki, R.S., 1975. Shanidar IV, a Neanderthal flower burial in northern Iraq. Science, 190, 880–881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solus, J. F., Arietta, B. J., Harris, J. R., Sexton, D. P., Steward, J. Q., McMunn, C., Ihrie, P., Mehall, J. M., Edwards, T. L. and Dawson, E. P., 2004. Genetic variation in eleven phase I drug metabolism genes in an ethnically diverse population. Pharmacogenomics, 5, 895–931.Google Scholar
St John‐Smith, P., McQueen, D., Edwards, L. and Schifano, F., 2013. Classical and novel psychoactive substances: rethinking drug misuse from an evolutionary psychiatric perspective. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 28, 394–401.Google Scholar
Sullivan, R. J. and Hagen, E. H., 2002. Psychotropic substance‐seeking: evolutionary pathology or adaptation? Addiction, 97, 389–400.Google Scholar
Sullivan, R. J., Hagen, E. H. and Hammerstein, P., 2008. Revealing the paradox of drug reward in human evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275, 1231–1241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trevathan, W., Smith, E. O. and McKenna, J. J. (eds.), 2008. Evolutionary Medicine and Health: New Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2012. World Drug Report 2012. Vienna: United Nations publication. Retrieved from www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/WDR-2012.htmlGoogle Scholar
Weaver, T., Madden, P., Charles, V., Stimson, G., Renton, A., Tyrer, P., Barnes, T., Bench, C., Middleton, H., Wright, N. and Paterson, S., 2003. Comorbidity of Substance Misuse and Mental Illness Collaborative study team. Comorbidity of substance misuse and mental illness in community mental health and substance misuse services. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 183, 304–313.Google Scholar
Wink, M., 2000. Interference of alkaloids with neuroreceptors and ion channels. In: Atta-ur-Rahman, (ed.), Studies in Natural Products Chemistry, Vol. 21. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 3–122.Google Scholar
Wishard, G., 2012. The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion and Mind. Abingdon-on-Thames: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Zahavi, A. and Zahavi, A., 1997. The Handicap Principle. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×