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
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Dopamine enhances expectation of pleasure in humans
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Nov 12, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (10) |
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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.
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.
Flipping the brain's addiction switch without drugs
May 28, 2009 |
5 / 5 (5) |
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When someone becomes dependent on drugs or alcohol, the brain's pleasure center gets hijacked, disrupting the normal functioning of its reward circuitry.
Research shows temptation more powerful than individuals realize
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Aug 03, 2009 |
3.9 / 5 (7) |
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Whether it's highlighted in major news headlines about Argentinean affairs and Ponzi schemes, or in personal battles with obesity and drug addiction, individuals regularly succumb to greed, lust and self-destructive behaviors. ...
Learning addiction: Dopamine reinforces drug-associated memories
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Sep 09, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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New research with mice has provided some fascinating insight into how addictive drugs hijack reward signals and influence neural processes associated with learning and memory. The research, published by Cell Press in the ...
Why can't some people give up cocaine?
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Nov 19, 2009 |
3 / 5 (1) |
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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 ...
Cyber junkies can unplug at US retreat
Aug 21, 2009 |
3 / 5 (1) |
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The first US retreat for Internet addicts has opened its doors, welcoming a teenager that was captive to World of Warcraft online role-playing videogame.
Scientists seek to manage dopamine's good and bad sides
Oct 07, 2009 |
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The good, the bad and the ugly: That's a quick summary of the effects of dopamine, a natural brain chemical that's linked to pleasure, addiction and disease.
Cocaine Vaccine Shows Promise for Treating Addiction
Oct 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Immunization with an experimental anti-cocaine vaccine resulted in a substantial reduction in cocaine use in 38 percent of vaccinated patients in a clinical trial supported by the National Institute on Drug ...
Site for alcohol's action in the brain discovered
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jun 28, 2009 |
5 / 5 (10) |
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Alcohol's inebriating effects are familiar to everyone. But the molecular details of alcohol's impact on brain activity remain a mystery. A new study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies ...
To Fight Drug Addiction, Researchers Target the Brain with Nanoparticles
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Mar 23, 2009 |
4 / 5 (1) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A precise, new nanotechnology treatment for drug addiction may be on the horizon as the result of research conducted at the University at Buffalo.
