Drug Abuse vs Addiction

11 Key excerpts on "Drug Abuse vs Addiction"

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  Pharmacology and Therapeutics

  • Sivakumar Joghi Thatha Gowder(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • IntechOpen

    (Publisher)

  Misuse : Wrong use of drug under medical supervision. Addiction : Specific side or adverse effect of drugs caused by prolonged use. In the case of addiction WHO recommend the use of the term dependence, subdivided into psychological or physical. Further, such terms as ‘habit-forming’ and ‘tolerance’ should also be properly defined in advance of dealing with problems of drug use. © 2014 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Drug abuse is defined as ‘the drug use that is not generally accepted on medical ground. In other words it is non-prescribed or social drug use. This means a continuous or occasional use of drug by the individual either of his own choice or under feeling of compulsion, to achieve his own well being or what he conceives as his own well being”. Drug addiction on the other hand is to devote or apply habitually these simple medicinal organic or inorganic ingredients in medicine. There is much-belated attempt by the scientific community to sever its conceptual apparatus from the vocabulary of politics and emotion. Addiction, like narcotics and drug abuse, has a general connotation of evil, suggesting illicit ecstasy, guilt and sin because the public image is conditioned more by cultural perceptions than by medical ones.

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  Addiction Neuroethics

  The Promises and Perils of Neuroscience Research on Addiction

  • Adrian Carter, Wayne Hall(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  We begin with a brief review of common or folk understandings of addiction, and the clinical accounts of addictive behaviour that have informed these common-sense views. We then examine the impact that drug use and addic- tion has upon society and the way in which societies have typically responded to it. We conclude by analysing the two dominant models that have been used 19 to explain addiction, the medical and moral, and discuss the relevance of neuroscience research to these models. 2.2. The phenomenology of addiction Addiction is a complex and highly heterogeneous condition that encompasses an array of problematic behaviours that evolve over time in different individ- uals in different ways. This can make defining addiction difficult. It is reflected in the terminology used to describe addictive patterns of drug use, namely, ‘addiction’, ‘dependence’ or ‘substance use disorder’. Addiction is often contrasted with dependence. An individual may be physically or psychologically dependent on a drug or both. People can become physically dependent on a substance without being addicted. Physical dependence involves the compen- satory physiological changes that result from the repeated use of a drug, with the result that rebound aversive symptoms often occur when drug use is abruptly stopped. This is often called a withdrawal syndrome. Some drugs may also produce a discontinuation syndrome that occurs upon abrupt cessation of use, such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), without producing the drug-seeking behaviour that is characteristic of addiction (Nutt, 2003). Psychological dependence encompasses the variety of psychological changes that drive drug use or makes one feel that they need to use drugs.

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  Adult Psychological Problems

  An Introduction

  • Lorna Champion, Michael Power(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  There have been numerous hypotheses regarding the underlying causes of psychological dependence, with varying implications for treatment. On the one hand it has often been suggested that certain personality traits may be associated with proneness to addiction; as yet there is little convincing evidence that this is so. Other theories focus on particular drug effects that the individual experiences, and conceptualise psychological dependence as an inability to cope with the void that cessation of drug use would leave. Whereas psychoanalytic models may postulate that the drug serves crucial symbolic functions, cognitive-behavioural formulations emphasise very practical needs such as dealing with stress, or acceptance within a particular sub-culture. This theoretical framework will be discussed at greater length later.

  As it has been recognised that addiction to drugs is largely a psychological phenomenon, parallels have been drawn with other types of compulsive behaviour such as gambling or over-eating, and it is now common to hear the term “addiction” applied to these behavioural abnormalities; similarly, the word “workaholism” has been coined to describe what is perceived as pathological over-working. This terminology assumes that these superficially diverse behaviours are maladaptive responses to a range of underlying needs, excessive drug use representing just one example of such a general process.

  APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING AND TREATING ADDICTION

  As is clear from the foregoing discussion, addiction is a complex and multifaceted disorder, and interventions are correspondingly diverse. Although a proportion of addicts either quit unaided, or seek help to do so because, for one reason or another, they have come to see their dependence as undesirable in itself, there is a substantial proportion who would prefer to carry on using drugs and do not consider drug use per se

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  Addiction (Types & Disorders)

  • (Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • The English Press

    (Publisher)

  These stages are characterized, respectively, everywhere by constant cravings and preocc-upation with obtaining the substance; using more of the substance than necessary to experience the intoxicating effects; and experiencing tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, and decreased motivation for normal life activities. By the American Society of Addiction Medicine definition, drug addiction differs from drug dependence and drug tolerance. It is, both among scientists and other writers, quite usual to allow the concept of drug addiction to include persons who are not drug abusers according to the definition of the ________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ American Society of Addiction Medicine. The term drug addiction is then used as a category which may include the same persons who, under the DSM-IV, can be given the diagnosis of substance dependence or substance abuse. The terms abuse and addiction have been defined and re-defined over the years. The 1957 World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Addiction-Producing Drugs defined addiction and habituation as components of drug abuse: Drug addiction is a state of periodic or chronic intoxication produced by the repeated consumption of a drug (natural or synthetic). Its characteristics include: (i) an over-powering desire or need (compulsion) to continue taking the drug and to obtain it by any means; (ii) a tendency to increase the dose; (iii) a psychic (psychological) and generally a physical dependence on the effects of the drug; and (iv) detrimental effects on the individual and on society. Drug habituation (habit) is a condition resulting from the repeated consumption of a drug.

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  The Development of Medications for the Treatment of Opiate and Cocaine Addictions: Issues for the Government and Private Sector

  • (Author)
  • 0(Publication Date)
  • The National Academies Press

    (Publisher)

  Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. compulsive drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior, rather than tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal (see Appendix C for diagnostic criteria). However, pharmacological definitions used in the scientific literature require the latter symptoms to be present, and most opiate-addicted patients (although not cocaine-addicted patients) seeking treatment, in fact, exhibit these symptoms. Drug addiction involves a complex interplay of psychological, physiological, and social mechanisms, and various models have been put forward to account for these mechanisms (Jaffe, 1992). Figure 2.1 presents the schematic model of drug dependence developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which emphasizes individual and social antecedents and consequences. Such a model is extremely useful, in that it offers numerous points at which interventions can be made to prevent the establishment or break the cycle of drug dependence through both individual and social means. Jaffe (1992) found it useful to modify this scheme in two ways to emphasize more clearly aspects that might affect the urge to engage in use of addictive drugs and aspects that might underlie successful treatment or cessation of drug addiction (Figures 2.2 and 2.3). Although development of effective anti-addiction medications is only one component of the multifaceted approach needed to develop an effective national strategy for drug-addiction treatment, this report focuses on the development of pharmacological interventions, so the models emphasizing biological factors are presented here. An established working model to account for drug addiction is the "brain-reward hypothesis"—i.e., a neural network is responsible for the subjective experience of pleasure (Koob, 1992; Wise and Hoffman, 1992), and drugs are abused after initial exposure because they activate the brain's reward system.

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  Concise Handbook of Psychoactive Herbs

  Medicinal Herbs for Treating Psychological and Neurological Problems

  • Marcello Spinella(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  It seems that everybody has either struggled with addiction or is close to someone who struggled, or continues to struggle, with it. The National Institute on Drug Abuse confirms this picture. In 1999, 14.8 million Americans had used an illegal drug at least once in the month before being interviewed. About 3.5 million were dependent on illegal drugs and another 8.2 million were dependent on alcohol. Given a population of about 270 million in the United States in that year, it means that roughly 4 percent of the population was addicted to a drug. The trends for different drugs and geographic areas tend to fluctuate: several cities in the northeastern United States saw a decrease in the use of cocaine and crack in 1999, but heroin use had increased among eighteen- to twenty-five-year-olds by 51.4 percent from 1997 to 1999. However, the use of both cocaine and heroin have increased since 1999, as has the number of emergency room reports of treating patients who had used these drugs. Marijuana use seemed to have stabilized for the time being, while use of Ecstasy (MDMA) had been growing in recent years. Overall, estimates from 2002 indicate that 8.3 percent of Americans used an illicit drug in the month prior to the survey. This percentage was highest (20.2 percent) among the eighteen- to twenty-five-year-old group.

  These statistics are disturbing. They emphasize the point that drug use is widespread, with no sign of slowing down. Some successfully quit, while others relapse, and new users continue to appear. In many respects it is a frustrating problem: it seems as if there is no cultural memory from which mistakes of the past can be learned and avoided. Instead, it seems as if newer generations continue to suffer the same problems as those before them.

  Why is addiction such a stubborn problem? Why have our best efforts failed to make a serious dent in it? This chapter takes a look at what addiction is, why it’s so persistent, and what can be done about it.

  Definitions

  Before trying to explain addiction, it’s important to have a firm idea of what it is. We must understand the distinction between drug use, abuse, and addiction. In reality, the lines between them are fuzzy, but definitions help us understand and agree on what it is.

  Good versus Evil

  Who gets to decide whether taking a drug is use, abuse, or addiction? Certainly not all drug use is abuse. So who has that authority? The standard manual for defining and diagnosing mental illnesses is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR), published by the American Psychiatric Association (2000). They list criteria for drug abuse and addiction, which are discussed in this chapter. The symptoms chosen to define addiction are very common themes in drug abuse and addiction, and most will agree that they paint a fairly accurate picture of the condition. But rather than just appealing to authority, it’s important to know why they chose the symptoms they did. Beneath all of these criteria is an underlying principle that we use to decide if use of a drug is “good” or “bad.”

  The underlying idea is to weigh costs and risks against benefits. We must first consider the total costs and risks of taking a drug in terms of how it affects one’s financial, physical, mental, and social well-being. This is then weighed against the potential benefits of the drug, or how it might improve a person’s well-being. What tips the scale from use to abuse is the relative relationship of costs and risks versus benefits. In a larger sense, everything that we do involves some risks and costs. Most of what we do involves some form of benefit. Whether any given activity is worthwhile, then, is a matter of how much good it creates relative to how much harm (or potential for harm). Whether or not we realize it, we make these types of judgments all of the time.

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  Drugs of Abuse and Addiction

  Neurobehavioral Toxicology

  • Raymond Niesink, R.M.A. Jaspers, L.M.W. Kornet, J.M. van Ree, Raymond Niesink, R.M.A. Jaspers, L.M.W. Kornet, J.M. van Ree(Authors)
  • 1998(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  This definition combined what would later be thought of as physical and psychological dependence. Only in the late 1970s did the concept of alcohol related problems emerge. This was a reminder of the earlier period of public health association with drug and alcohol use and indeed in the 1980s following the HIV epidemic drug and alcohol policies have again entered the public health domain. Definitions of dependence have been formulated using criteria which facilitate experimental research. Emphasis is given to the observable behavior of the substance user and how it is learned, modified, and reinforced. An example is the definition of substance use used by Pomerleau and Pomerleau35. They define addiction as repeated use of a substance and/ or a compelling involvement in a behavior that directly and indirectly modifies the internal mi-lieu in such a way that produces immediate reinforcement but with harmful long term effects. This definition incorporates both the pharmacological and social learning factors. Dependence implies that there is a degree of neuroadaptation which in the absence of drug consumption will result in receptor readaptation; this gives rise to a physical withdrawal in the case of opiates but not so with stimulants. Sociologists have also contributed to the debate on alcohol and drug use. Consumption may be considered deviant if it exceeds the established norm of 12 Chapter 1 Aspects of drug use and drug dependence the community. Other sociological perspectives would argue that dependence symptoms such as loss of control are social constructions that facilitate the categorization and management of such individuals in a more humane way' 1 • Psychiatry as a whole has gone through a revolution in the past 3 decades. The antipsychiatry movement of the 1960s and 1970s highlighted the dearth of empiricism in the classification of mental illness.

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  Drug Use and Abuse

  A Comprehensive Introduction

  • Howard Abadinsky(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Some psychological theories of drug use and abuse are based on personality: “Drug addiction is primarily a personality disorder. It represents one type of abortive adjustment to life that individuals with certain personality predispositions may choose under appropriate conditions of availability and sociocultural attitudinal tolerance” (Ausubel 1978: 77). Robert Craig (1987: 31) notes that the psychological literature sup-ports such a conclusion: “Drug addicts have a paucity of major psychiatric syndromes and Like other explanations for shaping human behavior, the misuse of psychoactive substances can be understood in terms of nature v. nurture. Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300 Psychology and Sociology of Drug Use 163 neuroses and a plethora of personality disorders and character disorders.” An extensive review of the literature on psychological testing of heroin addicts found them to be hostile, demanding, aggressive, rebellious, irresponsible, playful, and impulsive (Craig 1987). But many of these traits are also found in outstanding athletes. Part of the psychological explanation for drug abuse has been a presumed addic-tive personality , a psychological vulnerability resulting from problematic family relation-ships, inappropriate reinforcement, the lack of healthy role models, contradictory parental expectations, and/or an absence of love and respect. The psychologically immature drug-dependent personality seeks gratification on a primitive level or, according to the pleasure principle, finds drug use and its attendant behavior reinforcing. He or she ignores the long-term negative consequences of behavior and instead opts for the short-term positive rein-forcement that drugs provide. Unfortunately, the search for the addictive personality—psychological variables that can predict future drug abuse—has not been fruitful (Lang 1983).

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  Drug Abuse in the Modern World

  A Perspective for the Eighties

  • Gabriel G. Nahas, Henry Clay Frick, Gabriel G. Nahas, Henry Clay Frick(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Pergamon

    (Publisher)

  Some have theorized that drug dependence is itself a psy-chiatric illness, with a single yet unspecified etiology. Blaine and Renault (1) have reviewed the history of psychiatric theories of drug abuse and have suggested three recurrent formulations, each with several variations. Self-Medication Theories Recent psychoanalytic theorists such as Yorke, Wurmser, Khantzian and others have been among the major proponents of the view that drug abuse originates as an att-empt to self-medicate underlying psychological problems (2-4). Although there are several specific theories, these authors share the belief that in drug abusers, social, economic and/or parental deprivation lead to regressions or arrests in psy-chological development with resultant vulnerability to problems of anxiety, de-pression, aggression and psychosomatic illness (5-8). In these theories, inadequate development of psychological defenses leave the individual unable to effectively control intense affective states such as shame, rage or despair (4,9,10). These theorists explain drug use as an attempt to overcome personality inadequacies by repressing the affective states and escaping the psychological discomfort. Causation Theories Recent work in biological psychiatry (11-13) as well as earlier psychopharmacological *The work reported was supported by HSR&D Projects 284 and 525 to the senior author. The cooperation and assistance of the Substance Abuse Treatment Unit of the Coates-ville VA Medical Center and the editorial assistance of Ms. Peggy Fabrizio are gratefully acknowledged. 27 28 DRUG ABUSE IN THE MODERN WORLD studies (14-17)have demonstrated the profound behavioral effects of acute or chron-ic administrations of the commonly abused drugs in laboratory animals. These stud-ies have led to the development of so-called laboratory models of common psychiat-ric disorders such as psychosis, mania, and depression (18-21).

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  Drug Abuse Sourcebook, 6th Ed.

  • Angela Williams(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Omnigraphics

    (Publisher)

  Part Four The Causes and Consequences of Drug Abuse and Addiction 339 Chapter 31 Drug Addiction Is a Chronic Disease Sometimes it s hard for friends and family members to understand why their loved one can t just quit using the substance that is hurting them. The reason it’s so difficult for people struggling with drug or alcohol addiction is that it isn t just a habit it s a disease. When a person takes drugs or drinks alcohol over a period of time, it can change their brain circuits. In fact, addiction changes the way that crucial parts of the brain function so much that the person has a very hard time stopping their use of drugs or alcohol even when they want to do so. Addiction Beats up Your Brain Brain-science research has shown that addiction harms the brain in at least three ways: It makes the brain’s reward circuits less sensitive. Addictive drugs cause the brain to release dopamine, a chemical that makes a person feel pleasure. If the person continues to take the drug over time, however, the circuit can become imbalanced. To get the same reward they got when they first used the drug, they need to take larger amounts of it. And This chapter includes text excerpted from “Addiction Is a Disease,” National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for Teens, March 29, 2016. 340 Drug Abuse Sourcebook, Sixth Edition natural rewards no longer give the person pleasure, but instead cause them to lose interest in things they used to enjoy, such as spending time with friends. It increases the brain s reaction to stress� Some brain circuits control our responses to stressful situations. In the brain of a person with addiction, that system of circuits becomes overactive, making people feel very stressed when they aren t using drugs. It weakens regions of the brain that help a person make good decisions� Drug addiction also affects the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the part of the brain that helps a person make decisions and control their impulses.

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  Exploring Health Psychology

  • Spencer A. Rathus, Jeffrey S. Nevid(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  • Limit internet use to public places. For example, use the library or the student center or the cafeteria. • Develop relationships in the real world. Join clubs and campus organizations, and expand your friendships rather than substi- tute virtual relationships. Tino Tedaldi/Cultura/Getty Images 272 CHAPTER 9 Substance Use and Abuse Health Psychology and Behavioral Change Psychologists have shown that certain substances require specific strategies for curtailing abuse, whereas there are some general principles that apply to a number of substances. Treat- ments and strategies run the gamut from medical supervision for withdrawal or replacement of a substance to self-guided change, therapeutic groups, apps and online methods. We will also see that B. F. Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning offers useful advice for using the ABCs of behavior to cut down on and discontinue substance abuse. Detoxification For those who are physiologically dependent on drugs, the first step in treatment may be detox- ification, or the ridding of the body of the substance. “Detox” may occur in a hospital setting so that people can be medically supervised as they withdraw. Depending on the substance, a detox program may last as long as 28 days, during which time people who are recovering receive counseling to prepare them for remaining substance-free upon discharge. Counselors attempt to break through the layers of denial that often cloud abusers’ recognition of the need to come to grips with the consequences of their usage. Counselors also advise avoiding people and situations associated with abuse of the substance. Strategies for Change Psychologists have developed many strategies to promote long-term changes in health-related behavior, but so have laypeople (Bishop, 2018). In fact, the majority of people who have quit or cut down on substance abuse have looked to their own resources to gain control.

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