Tell Me in Detail About Addiction?
Question by dida_thurman: tell me in detail about addiction?
Best answer:
Answer by danadee l
Decades ago addiction was a pharmacologic term that clearly referred to the use of a tolerance-inducing drug in sufficient quantity as to cause tolerance (the requirement that greater dosages of a given drug be used to produce an identical effect as time passes). With that definition, humans (and indeed all mammals) can become addicted to various drugs quickly. Almost at the same time, a lay definition of addiction developed. This definition referred to individuals who continued to use a given drug despite their own best interest. This latter definition is now thought of as a disease state by the medical community.
Physical dependence, abuse of, and withdrawal from drugs and other miscellaneous substances is outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV TR). Unfortunately, terminology has become quite complicated in the field. To wit, pharmacologists continue to speak of addiction from a physiologic standpoint (some call this a physical dependence); psychiatrists refer to the disease state as dependence; most other physicians refer to the disease as addiction. The field of psychiatry is now considering, as they move from DSM-IV to DSM-V, transitioning from “dependence” to “addiction” as terminology for the disease state.
The medical community now makes a careful theoretical distinction between physical dependence (characterized by symptoms of withdrawal) and psychological dependence (or simply addiction). Addiction is now narrowly defined as “uncontrolled, compulsive use”; if there is no harm being suffered by, or damage done to, the patient or another party, then clinically it may be considered compulsive, but to the definition of some it is not categorized as “addiction”. In practice, the two kinds of addiction are not always easy to distinguish. Addictions often have both physical and psychological components.
SEE SITE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction
• A disease that includes alcohol and drug cravings and continued drinking and drug use despite repeated alcohol and drug-related problems, such as losing a job or getting into trouble with the law. Symptoms include craving, impaired control, physical dependence and increased tolerance.
• A chronic disorder characterized by dependence on alcohol and drugs, repeated excessive use of alcohol and drugs, development of withdrawal symptoms on reducing or ceasing alcohol or drugs, morbidity that may include cirrhosis of the liver, and decreased ability to function socially and vocationally. Currently believed by many to be a disease with strong genetic links.
• Continued excessive or compulsive use of alcohol or drugs; a chronic, progressive, potentially fatal, psychological and nutritional disorder associated with excessive and compulsive use characterized by frequent intoxication leading to dependence on or addiction to the substance, impairment of the ability to work and socialize, destructive behaviors, tissue or organ damage, and severe withdrawal symptoms upon detoxification.
• A primary chronic disease influenced by genetic predisposition, psycho-social, environmental and cultural factors. The alcoholic or addict who chooses to drink or use does so because of a complex interaction between these factors.
Prognosis & Complications
• Mental confusion, delirium or amnesia
• Vomiting and ulcers
• Pancreatitis
• Osteoporosis
• Infections
• HIV
• Hepatitis
• High blood pressure and heart disease
• Malnutrition
• Liver disease, fatty liver or cirrhosis
• Brain and nerve damage — changes the emotion, decision, muscle, breathing and heartbeat-controlling centers of the brain
• Linked to numerous types of cancer
• Heart disease
• During pregnancy, it’s linked to lower birth weights, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), poor growth, delays in development, altered facial structure, other birth defects and addicted babies