contemporary medicine

Addiction

              History of drug addiction:  modern agricultural  practices, improvements in access to drugs, advancements in biochemistry, and increases in the recommendation of drug usage by clinical practitioners have exacerbated the problem significantly in the 20th century. For example; introduction of synthetic compounds, such as methamphetamine  factors contributing to drug addiction.

               However;there had  been controversy  about  the definition  long  time ago but the latest  definition from  American Academy of Pain Medicine, American Pain Society, and American Society of Addiction in 2001  defined the following terms:

Addiction is a primary, chronic, neurobiologic disease, with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. It is characterized by behaviors that include one or more of the following: impaired control over drug use, compulsive use, continued use despite harm, and craving.

Physical dependence is a state of adaptation that is manifested by a drug class specific withdrawal syndrome that can be produced by abrupt cessation, rapid dose reduction, decreasing blood level of the drug, and/or administration of an antagonist.

Tolerence is the body's physical adaptation to a drug: greater amounts of the drug are required over time to achieve the initial effect as the body "gets used to" and adapts to the intake.

Pseudo addiction is a term which has been used to describe patient behaviors that may occur when pain is undertreated. Patients with unrelieved pain may become focused on obtaining medications, may “clock watch,” and may otherwise seem inappropriately “drug seeking.” Even such behaviors as illicit drug use and deception can occur in the patient's efforts to obtain relief. Pseudoaddiction can be distinguished from true addiction in that the behaviors resolve when pain is effectively treated.While   the Diagnostic and statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV-TR doesn’t use the word addiction at all. Instead it has a section about  Substance dependence .In turn   professor  Nils Bejerot  proposed  a definition of addiction  as"An emotional fixation (sentiment) acquired through learning, which intermittently or continually expresses itself in purposeful, stereotyped behavior with the character and force of a natural drive, aiming at a specific pleasure or the avoidance of a specific discomfort."

                   Drugs known to cause addiction include illegal drugs as well as prescription  or over the counter drugs, according to the definition of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

Stimulant: Amphetamine and Methamphetamine , Caffeine, Cocaine ,Nicotine

Sedatives and Alcohol , Barbiturates, Benzodiazepines   and the related quinazolinone 

Opiate and Opioid analgesics :Morphine and Codeine, the two naturally-occurring opiate analgesics  Semi-synthetic opiates, such as Heroin (Diacetylmorphine), and its analogs, Meperidine/Pethidine, and Methadone

Addictive drugs also include a large number of substrates that are currently considered to have no medical value and are not available over the counter or by prescription