Addictions I - Psychology of Addictions

Course Description

Addictions I — Psychology of Addictions has students develop foundational knowledge regarding various abused substances, addiction concepts, and addiction categories. The course covers current evidence-based practices across education, behavioral health, and social science fields, along with available addiction referral services. Daytona State states that this course satisfies the Transdisciplinary Foundations requirement for certification boards.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, PSB is the Psychobiology prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 3 credits, offered fall and spring. ⚠ The certification board note is worth acting on — if you intend to pursue addiction counselling certification in Florida, confirm with the Florida Certification Board which specific requirement this satisfies before assuming it.

The single most consequential idea in this course is that addiction is a treatable condition with an evidence base, and that most of what the public believes about it is wrong. The evidence supports specific treatments — medication for opioid use disorder among the best supported interventions in behavioural health — while much popular and even some professional practice is built on moral framing that the evidence does not support. A student who leaves able to distinguish the two, and to talk about people with addiction without contempt, is genuinely more useful than one who has memorised drug classes.

Daytona State does not publish a lecture and laboratory split for this course. It is an unsuffixed lecture course, and the institution's lecture convention is 15 contact hours per credit — PSY1012, AMH2010 and GEB1011 are all live at 3 credits and 45 hours. This course is priced at that convention.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe the major categories of abused substances.
• Describe the pharmacology of each major class at an introductory level.
• Describe routes of administration and their effect on abuse potential.
• Describe tolerance, dependence, withdrawal, and distinguish them.
• Describe the neurobiology of addiction and the reward pathway.
• Describe current diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders.
• Describe behavioural and process addictions.
• Describe risk and protective factors for addiction.
• Describe the role of genetics, environment, and adverse experience.
• Describe co-occurring mental health conditions and their significance.
• Describe the effects of addiction on families and communities.
• Describe screening and brief intervention approaches.
• Describe assessment and the levels of care.
• Describe evidence-based behavioural treatments.
• Describe medications for addiction treatment and the evidence for them.
• Describe harm reduction and its evidence base.
• Describe overdose recognition and response.
• Describe relapse, recovery, and recovery support.
• Describe mutual aid and peer support approaches.
• Describe referral services available in Florida.
• Describe confidentiality requirements specific to substance use records.
• Describe ethical and professional boundaries in this field.
• Use person-first, non-stigmatising language accurately.
• Describe certification and licensure pathways in addiction counselling.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe prevention programmes and their evidence.
• Describe adolescent substance use and its distinctive features.
• Describe addiction in older adults.
• Describe substance use policy and the criminal justice interface.
• Describe cultural considerations in addiction treatment.
• Describe trauma-informed care.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Categories of abused substances
• Introductory pharmacology by class
• Routes and abuse potential
• Tolerance, dependence, withdrawal
• Neurobiology and reward
• Diagnostic criteria
• Behavioural and process addictions
• Risk and protective factors
• Genetics, environment, adversity
• Co-occurring conditions
• Effects on families and communities
• Screening and brief intervention
• Assessment and levels of care
• Evidence-based behavioural treatment
• Medications for addiction treatment
• Harm reduction
• Overdose recognition and response
• Relapse and recovery
• Mutual aid and peer support
• Florida referral services
• Confidentiality of substance use records
• Ethics and boundaries
• Non-stigmatising language
• Certification pathways

Optional Topics

• Prevention programmes
• Adolescent substance use
• Addiction in older adults
• Policy and criminal justice
• Cultural considerations
• Trauma-informed care

Resources & Tools

• Your college library's science databases — free with enrolment, and the difference between citing the literature and citing a website.
• Your instructor's office hours — free, underused, and the fastest route past a concept you are stuck on.
• The tutoring centre — free, and used most heavily by the students who do best.
• Draw the mechanism yourself. Concept maps and hand-drawn diagrams outperform rereading substantially in science courses, and they show you where the gap is.
• Work problems continuously rather than before assessments. Science and mathematics are learned by doing, and reading a worked solution produces a convincing but false sense of understanding.
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (nida.nih.gov) — free, authoritative, and written at several levels; its material on the neurobiology of addiction is the standard reference.
• SAMHSA (samhsa.gov) — free treatment locator, evidence-based practice guidance, and the national helpline.
• Florida Certification Board (flcertificationboard.org) — free; the authority on Florida addiction professional certification requirements. Check what this course counts toward before assuming.
• Florida Department of Children and Families — substance abuse services — free; the state system and its providers.
• Your local 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and 211 — free, and worth knowing before you need to refer someone.

Career Pathways

• Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors — SOC 21-1018; strong projected growth and persistent shortage.
• Certified addiction professional pathways in Florida — the Florida Certification Board administers several credentials with differing education and supervised experience requirements.
• Peer recovery specialist — a certified role, frequently held by people with lived experience, and a genuine entry point.
• Case management and care coordination in behavioural health.
• Prevention specialist — community and school-based programmes; separately certified.
• Criminal justice and drug court roles.
• Social work — requiring a social work degree and licensure.
• Healthcare roles — nursing, emergency medicine, and primary care all encounter this constantly, and this content is directly applicable.
• Transfer to a bachelor's programme in psychology, social work, or human services.
• ⚠ This field is emotionally demanding and the pay is frequently modest at entry. Relapse is part of the condition rather than a failure of the work, and practitioners who take relapse personally do not last. Supervision and self-care are professional requirements, not luxuries.

Special Information

⚠⚠ Overdose response — this is content that saves lives, and it is not theoretical

• ⚠⚠ Naloxone reverses opioid overdose, works quickly, and is safe. It has no effect on someone who has not taken opioids, so giving it when you are unsure carries essentially no risk while withholding it can be fatal.
• In Florida naloxone is widely available including without an individual prescription through standing orders, and many community programmes distribute it free. Carry it if you work in this field.
• Recognise the signs: unresponsive, very slow or absent breathing, blue or grey lips and fingertips, pinpoint pupils, gurgling or snoring sounds. Snoring in an unresponsive person is an obstructed airway, not sleep.
• ⚠ Call 911 first, then give naloxone, then support breathing and stay until help arrives. Naloxone wears off and the overdose can return, which is why the call matters even when the person wakes up.
• ⚠⚠ Florida has a Good Samaritan provision giving protection from certain drug possession charges for people who seek medical assistance in good faith for an overdose. Fear of arrest is a documented reason people do not call, and knowing this provision exists is itself an intervention — verify its current scope, since these provisions change.
• ⚠ Illicitly manufactured fentanyl has transformed the risk. It is present in counterfeit pills and in supplies sold as other drugs, it is potent enough that a user has no reliable way to judge a dose, and multiple naloxone doses may be needed.
• Never assume someone is "just sleeping it off", and never leave an intoxicated person alone face-up.
• Someone who has just been reversed will be in acute withdrawal and may be distressed or hostile. Expect it, do not take it personally, and keep them safe.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies — Florida's naloxone access and Good Samaritan provisions have changed over time; verify current law.

⚠⚠ Language and stigma — a clinical intervention, not politeness

• Stigma measurably reduces the likelihood that people seek and remain in treatment, which makes it a clinical variable rather than a matter of manners.
• ⚠ Use person-first language: "a person with a substance use disorder", not "an addict" or "an abuser". Studies have found that clinicians presented with identical cases described in different terms recommended more punitive responses for the stigmatising wording — the language changed the professional judgement.
• Avoid "clean" and "dirty", including for test results. "Negative" and "positive" are the accurate words, and the alternative frames a person as contaminated.
• ⚠⚠ Relapse is a feature of the condition, not a failure of character or of treatment. Recurrence rates are comparable to those of other chronic conditions managed with medication and behaviour change — and nobody describes a person whose blood pressure rose again as having failed.
• Medication for opioid use disorder is treatment, not "replacing one drug with another". It is among the best-evidenced interventions in behavioural health and it substantially reduces mortality, and the persistence of that misconception costs lives, including inside treatment settings.
• Harm reduction and abstinence are not opposed. Keeping someone alive and connected is a precondition for any later recovery.
• Recovery is common. A large proportion of people with substance use disorders recover, and the visibility bias of clinical settings makes practitioners underestimate it.
• ⚠ Examine your own assumptions. Many students arrive with strong views formed by family experience, and this course will be personally difficult for some — counselling services are free and confidential, and using them is ordinary.
• Confidentiality is stricter here. Federal rules give substance use treatment records additional protection beyond HIPAA — know them before you handle any.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement.

PSB2442 is 3 credits and approximately 45 contact hours, offered fall and spring at Daytona State.

⚠ If you intend to certify as an addiction professional in Florida, confirm with the Florida Certification Board which requirement this course satisfies — see the note above.