Addiction The Tabers medical dictionary

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Addiction

The Tabers medical dictionary defines drug addiction as a compulsive and maladaptive dependence on a drug that produces adverse psychological, physical, economic, social, or legal ramifications(5). In the U.S., the abuse or misuse of prescription drugs has been identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a growing problem. In 2007, for example, the CDC reported that more than 27,500 Americans died of drug overdose, an increase of more than 100% in the preceding ten years(1). More than five times as many people died from misuse of prescribed opioids as from heroin.

It is often misunderstand why people become addicted to drugs or how drugs change the brain to lead to habitual drug abuse. Quite often people view drug abuse and addiction as merely a social problem while characterizing those who take drugs as morally or mentally weak. One very common belief is that drug abusers should be able to just stop taking drugs if they are only willing to change their behavior(6).

What is often underestimated is the complexity of drug addiction, which is that it is a disease that impacts the brain and its neurochemical processes(4), and because of that, stopping drug abuse is not simply a matter of willpower. Scientific advances we now know much more about how exactly drugs work in the brain, and we also know that drug addiction can be successfully treated to help people stop abusing drugs and resume productive lives.Drug addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease tha