Dictionary of Biological Psychology
Cellular tolerance accounts for TOLERANCE in terms of changed function in cells. In contrast, behavioural tolerance is a form of tolerance that involves behavioural and psychological processes. It has been proposed by Siegel (1989) that part of the effects of drugs is conditioned: the place in which a DRUG is taken, for example, can acquire, by PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING, effects of its own (see PLACE CONDITIONING). These effects will often involve making the body ready to receive drug. If these preparatory signals are not present, a drug may have a very different effect.
It has been suggested that many of the fatalities that result from drug OVERDOSE involve a drug having been administered in a novel environment, where the protective effects of learned responses were not present.
References
Feldman R., Meyer J.S. & Quenzer L.F. (1997) Principles of Neuropsychopharmacology, Sinauer Associates: Sunderland MA.
Siegel S. (1989) Pharmacological conditioning and drug effects. In Psychoactive Drugs: Tolerance and Sensitization., ed. A.J.Goudie & M.W.Emmett-Oglesby, pp. 115–180, Humana Press: Clifton NJ.
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