La adicción a las drogas, evolución y sociedad: un estudio sobre la adicción a partir de la psicología evolutiva

This article aims to analyze the evolutionary foundations of human addiction to psychoactive substances. To this end, we used two recurrent dichotomous hypotheses in evolutionary psychology literature. The first is that natural selection has structured mechanisms of pleasure in our mind that are linked to the maintenance of life and the reproductive success, and in that drugs are a kind of shortcut within these mechanisms, the co-opts so to speak. In this context the addiction would be linked to chemical imbalance in our brain caused by a wear. The other hypothesis is that psychoactive drugs were important for the maintenance of life of our ancestors when going through difficult times or uncertainties. So, if we consider its addictive factor it would be an adaptive consequence of the common use of drugs in the past. Our results show that even that is not possible to define which of the hypotheses is more adherent, both results show that humans are susceptible to addictions. Resumen:Este artículo tiene como objetivo analizar los fundamentos evolutivos de la adicción humana a las sustancias psicoactivas. Con este fin, hemos utilizado dos hipótesis dicotómicas recurrentes en la literatura de la psicología evolutiva. La primera es que la selección natural ha estructurado mecanismos de placer en nuestra mente que están vinculados con el mantenimiento de la vida y el éxito reproductivo, y donde las drogas son una especie de atajo dentro de estos mecanismos, el co-opta por así decirlo. En este contexto, la adicción estaría vinculada a un desequilibrio químico en el cerebro causada por un desgaste. La otra hipótesis es que las drogas psicoactivas eran importantes para el mantenimiento de la vida de nuestros antepasados al pasar por momentos difíciles o incertidumbres. Por lo tanto, tenemos en cuenta su factor adictivo, que sería una consecuencia de adaptación de la utilización común de las drogas en el pasado. Nuestros resultados muestran que no es posible definir cuál de las hipótesis es más adherente, ya que ambos resultados muestran que los seres humanos son susceptibles a las adicciones.Abstract: This article aims to analyze the evolutionary foundations of human addiction to psychoactive substances. To this end, we used two recurrent dichotomous hypotheses in evolutionary psychology literature. The first is that natural selection has structured mechanisms of pleasure in our mind that are linked to the maintenance of life and the reproductive success, and in that drugs are a kind of shortcut within these mechanisms, the co-opts so to speak. In this context the addiction would be linked to chemical imbalance in our brain caused by a wear. The other hypothesis is that psychoactive drugs were important for the maintenance of life of our ancestors when going through difficult times or uncertainties. So, if we consider its addictive factor it would be an adaptive consequence of the common use of drugs in the past. Our results show that even that is not possible to define which of the hypotheses is more adherent, both results show that humans are susceptible to addictions