Addiction
hideThe term "addiction" is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction (e.g. alcoholism), video game addiction, crime, money, work addiction, compulsive overeating, problem gambling, computer addiction, nicotine addiction, pornography addiction, etc.
In medical terminology, an addiction is a chronic neurobiologic disorder that has genetic, psychosocial, and environmental dimensions and is characterized by one of the following: the continued use of a substance despite its detrimental effects, impaired control over the use of a drug (compulsive behavior), and preocupation with a drug's use for non-therapeutic purposes (i.e. craving the drug). Addiction is often accompanied the presence of deviant behaviors (for instance stealing money and forging prescriptions) that are used to obtain a drug.
Tolerance to a drug and physical dependence are not defining characteristics of addiction, although they typically accompany addiction to certain drugs. Tolerance is a pharmacologic phenomenon where the dose of a medication needs to be continually increase in order to maintain its desired effects. For instance, individuals with severe chronic pain taking opiate medications (like morphine) will need to continually increase the dose in order to maintain the drug's analgesic (pain-relieving) effects. Physical dependence is also a pharmacologic property and means that if a certain drug is abruptly discontinued, an individual will experience certain characteristic withdrawal signs and symptoms. Many drugs used for therapeutic purposes produce withdrawal symptoms when abruptly stopped, for instance oral steroids, certain antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and opiates.
However, common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence. In this context, the term is used in drug addiction and substance abuse problems, but also refers to behaviors that are not generally recognized by the medical community as problems of addiction, such as compulsive overeating.
The term addiction is also sometimes applied to compulsions that are not substance-related, such as problem gambling and computer addiction. In these kinds of common usages, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences, as deemed by the user himself to his or her individual health, mental state or social life.
For more information about Addiction, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with addiction
Role of addiction cannot be ignored in obesity epidemic
Dec 22, 2009 |
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The causes of obesity are complex and individual, but it is clear that chronic overeating plays a fundamental role. But when this behaviour becomes compulsive and out of control, it is often classified as "food addiction" ...
Glutamate can play key role in drug impact on brain
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Dec 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Addiction disorders of various kinds are a major health and social problem, and our knowledge of how the brain’s reward system functions needs to be enhanced. Uppsala researchers now shows an unexpected effect ...
Drinks industry supplanting government role in alcohol policies in Sub-Saharan Africa
Dec 15, 2009 |
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A recent comparison of proposed national alcohol policies in Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda, and Botswana shows that the drinks industry has assumed a significant and detrimental role in designing national alcohol policies in Sub-Saharan ...
Flies like us: They can act like addicts, too
Dec 10, 2009 |
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When given the chance to consume alcohol at will, fruit flies behave in ways that look an awful lot like human alcoholism. That's according to a study published online on December 10th in Current Biology that is one of the ...
Rodent smoke screen
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Dec 08, 2009 |
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Rats passively exposed to tobacco smoke become dependent on nicotine, according to a new study by Dr. Adrie Bruijnzeel and colleagues from the University of Florida in the US. Their findings of how rats' brains respond to ...
Undergrad researchers lay groundwork for drug addiction remedy
Dec 08, 2009 |
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Sarah Steele and Langtian "Ren" Yuan were both self-admittedly inexperienced Duke freshmen in the spring of 2006. But then they followed helpful directions of an assistant chemistry professor, added their own patience and ...
The buzz on fruit flies: New role in the search for addiction treatments
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Dec 03, 2009 |
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Fruit flies may seem like unlikely heroes in the battle against drug abuse, but new research suggests that these insects — already used to study dozens of human disease — could claim that role. Scientists ...
Waterpipe tobacco smokers inhale same toxicants as cigarette smokers
Dec 02, 2009 |
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Smoking tobacco through a waterpipe exposes the user to the same toxicants - carbon monoxide and nicotine - as puffing on a cigarette, which could lead to nicotine addiction and heart disease, according to a study led by ...
New study links alcohol in pregnancy to child behavior problems
Nov 23, 2009 |
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A new study from Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research has found evidence that the amount and timing of alcohol consumption in pregnancy affects child behaviour in different ways.
Why can't some people give up cocaine?
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Nov 19, 2009 |
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Drug dependency is a recurrent but treatable kind of addiction. However, not all people who are drug dependent progress in the same way once they stop taking drugs. A new study shows that, in the case of cocaine, a high score ...
Dopamine enhances expectation of pleasure in humans
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Nov 12, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Enhancing the effects of the brain chemical dopamine influences how people make life choices by affecting expectations of pleasure, according to new research from the UCL Institute of Neurology.
Scientists call for ban on alcohol-industry sponsorship of sport
Nov 09, 2009 |
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The alcohol industry's sponsorship of sport should be banned and replaced with a dedicated alcohol tax modelled on those employed by some countries for tobacco, say scientists.
Exercise makes cigarettes less attractive to smokers
Oct 26, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Exercise can help smokers quit because it makes cigarettes less attractive. A new study from the University of Exeter shows for the first time that exercise can lessen the power of cigarettes ...
First former college football player diagnosed with CTE
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 22, 2009 |
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The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) announced today that a deceased former college football player who died at age 42 was already suffering from the degenerative ...
New study suggests minimal relationship between cannabis and schizophrenia or psychosis
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 22, 2009 |
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Last year the UK government reclassified cannabis from a class C to a class B drug, partly out of concerns that cannabis, especially the more potent varieties, may increase the risk of schizophrenia in young people. But the ...
