Cognitive factors and changes in individual decision making: From drug addiction to natural recovery

This paper proposes a model of natural recovery, a widespread yet unexplained aspect of addictive behavior consisting on spontaneous cessation of consumption. The model is grounded on the neuroscience and on recent theories regarding addiction as a progressive susceptibility to stochastic environmental cues that can trigger mistaken usage. In order to explain the mechanisms leading to natural recovery, our model introduces a competition between an "implicit cognitive appraisal" process, depending on past addiction experiences as well as on the future expected consequences of addictive consumption and cue-driven impulses to use. Individual choice is affected in two ways: the reward from use decreases as the decision maker grows older and cognitive and motivational incentives emerge thus reducing the probability of making mistakes. While allowing for cue-triggered mistakes in individual decision making, this model recovers an important role for other factors, such as subjective self evaluations, in explaining natural recovery with relevant implications both for economic and social policy and for the treatment of drug and alcohol dependence. © 2012 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.