On Fri, 01 Oct 1999 14:12:30 -0400 "Michael J. Kane"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Beth Benoit wrote:
> Iagree that it's certainly doubtful that people become
> addicted to aspirin and ibuprofen.
>
>
> I'd say it's not so doubtful. See the following quote from
> The State, a newspaper in SC, Summer 1993:
>
> "While taking the occasional aspirin for a headache can
> be good medicine, taking any analgesic too much can
> promote regular headaches, researchers at St. Louis
> University Medical Center report in a recent issue of
> Headache Quarterly.
>
> 'It's really a paradox,' said Dr. Paul Duckro, an associate
> professor of psychiatry. 'People who suffer from headaches
> are typically taught to rely on medication for their pain, but
> we've found that regular use of analgesic medication can
> contribute to the transformation of an occasional headache
> into the nearly constant pain of chronic, daily headache.'
>
> Note that this is not so strange when one considers
> classical conditioning mechanisms of tolerance and
> withdrawal, as in Siegel's influential research. I regularly
> introduce my discussion of conditioned compensatory
> responses (in my Learning course) with the above quote.
>
Mike is right, and the term for the effect with aspirin is
"rebound analgesia." You see a similar effect with nasal
sprays, termed "rhinitis medicamentosa."
Also, for perception fans, Siegel (and Lorraine Allan) have
spent the last few years building the case that the McCollough
Effect is a classical conditioning effect. [See the Siegel &
Allan (1998) article in Psych. Bulletin.] One reason this is an
interesting endeavor is that Richard Solomon's opponent process
model arose from his familiarity with the Hurvich & Jameson
opponent process theory of color vision.
Ken
----------------------
Kenneth M. Steele [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Associate Professor
Dept. of Psychology
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
