The multifaceted nature of risk-taking in drug addiction

Drug addiction is a neuropsychiatric disorder that involves recurrent seeking and taking of illicit substances despite the possibly adverse consequences. Research has consistently shown that individuals with drug dependence tend to exhibit impaired decision-making behavior, due to a number of influences. The propensity of an individual to make risky decisions can be influenced by a myriad of factors, including the individual's ability to consider the consequences of previous decision-making behavior (feedback processing); their ability to consider situational information when making a decision (environmental contingencies); the domain or context in which risk-taking behavior occurs (e.g., ethical, social, financial, health and safety, and recreational risk-taking); and the presence of any decision-making biases (e.g., intolerance of uncertainty). The role that each of these factors plays in risk-taking behavior in drug dependent and healthy populations has been investigated, and the research is reviewed herein. Future research on the multifaceted nature of risk-taking in drug dependent populations should focus on behavioral measures of risk-taking and decision-making biases to reduce reliance on self-report and increase real-world applicability of findings. Understanding patients' decision-making behaviors is crucial to integrating such information into intervention and prevention programs, which could increase patient adherence to, and success of, such programs.