The Role Dopamine Plays in Pain and Pleasure | SCHE

Dr. Anna Lembke, Academic Director in the Psychology of Addiction and Recovery online short course from the Stanford Center for Health Education (SCHE), explores the role that dopamine plays in reward processing.

The old adage that too much of a good thing can be bad for you is especially true when it comes to the neurotransmitter, dopamine. Even though dopamine is most commonly associated with feelings of pleasure or reward, the flip side is the equal and opposite effect it has with regard to pain. In this course, you’ll delve deeper into the causes of, and treatments for, addiction using a biopsychosocial model. You’ll also gain an understanding of the biological risk factors of addiction, and how concepts of addiction have changed over time.

Six weeks, entirely online.

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[panditpavan]

This is changed my life, you literally saved my life.... I was wasting my life with the addiction.... Now I'll try to fight with it and restore my life

[Tienvdoan]

I was in training 15 days in the field and we don’t have wifi no phone devices no food and barely had water and I felt great, now I come home with lot of distractions

[FeelsGoood]

This model changed my life. Unfortunately, we have to admit that it is extremely scarce, although it is an incredibly important basis that would be better developed. I think the amazing Anna Lembke is experienced enough for this, but for some reason she stopped only at a simple model of a swing. In fact, this model does not explain the huge number of things that it generates. For example, it does not reflect the fact that with each subsequent intervention, not only the pain itself increases, but also the desire for pleasure. Moreover, the desire for pleasure is not proportional to pain. Sometimes even in the worst states of aspiration 0, and sometimes with barely noticeable incredible energy rise. Also, such a simple model does not reflect why addictions that we are already addicted to affect this balance much faster than just pleasant things and so on.