In the heart of the Ecuadoran Amazon live the Cofan Avie, masters of ayahuasca—the powerful hallucinogenic concoction said to open the door to the "spirit" world.
Other
Feb 24, 2023
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15
Research in the International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development has looked at whether what we might refer to as brand addiction leads to compulsive buying of fast-moving consumer goods. By brand addiction in this context, ...
Social Sciences
Feb 15, 2023
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21
Teenagers who feel well-supported by their parents are more likely to report increased internet addiction over time, in a surprise finding from a new University of Sydney Business School study.
Social Sciences
Jan 23, 2023
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9
Pain, especially chronic pain, is a common neurological phenomenon. The most common chronic pain conditions include low back pain, arthritis pain, migraine and cancer pain—all of which seriously affect people's physical ...
Biochemistry
Nov 16, 2022
0
94
We have to get to the heart of our culture's obsession with sports gambling before we can see change, says UNSW media and advertising expert.
Social Sciences
Nov 10, 2022
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1
Gun-toting youths watch over a street in a Rio de Janeiro slum hit hard by drug trafficking, but walk a bit further and this rough area also boasts the largest urban vegetable garden in Latin America.
Ecology
May 21, 2022
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36
Cholecystokinin (CCK) and gastrin are the earliest discovered gastrointestinal hormones. They are the most abundant peptides in gastrointestinal tract and central nervous system, acting as physiologically important hormones ...
Biochemistry
Oct 8, 2021
0
28
Opioids are the most powerful painkillers we have, but they're incredibly addictive.
Other
May 6, 2021
0
7
A 15-year-old Colorado high school student and young scientist who has used artificial intelligence and created apps to tackle contaminated drinking water, cyberbullying, opioid addiction and other social problems has been ...
Other
Dec 5, 2020
2
202
Another day, another critic of online gaming. This time, it is one of the most well known faces, or voices, in popular culture today.
Social Sciences
Aug 19, 2020
1
2
The 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.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
