Correlation and dependence

An addiction can be stated as either a biopsychosocial disease or in severe cases a brain disorder. An addiction holds the power to dictate many aspects of people’s lives, and can turn into a solid form of suffering. In the past, an addiction was only classified as substances that crossed the blood-brain barrier, and then temporarily alter the chemical balance of the brain. These kinds of substances would include alcohol, tobacco and some drugs. But more recently a considerable number of…

accepted current modern system of diagnosis is that published by the American Psychiatric Association, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) This uses the term substance dependence instead of ‘addiction’ and defines it as follows: DSM-IV Criteria for Substance Dependence (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) A maladaptive pattern of substance abuse, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by three (or more) of the following,…

Correlation refers to the relationship between things that change together while causation is the process of causing something to happen. Through different researches, addictions have been proven to happen through causation where drinking a lot or watching…

This makes it an opioid, and one that runs a high risk for severe psychological and physical dependence. However, doses of two to four milligrams (in either pill or liquid form) are often used for their pain-relieving effect. In severe accident cases, it is often given intravenously to people in comas and is particularly useful for treating the…

Drug addiction is one of the oldest problems in the world that has yet to be resolved. Since the development of drugs, dating back thousands of years, there has been addiction to those drugs. Still today, there are an alarming amount of deaths of all ages related to drug dependency. If drug addiction has been around for so long, why has there not been a solution presented to end the drug overdoses and deaths? Unfortunately, it seems as this significant problem has been overlooked and ignored for…

withdrawal,” and “substance dependence.” Substance intoxication takes place when one is under the influence of a substance and is experiencing mood and behavior altering affects. Substance withdrawal is when one is experiencing an uncomfortable occurrence that results when one is not taking a substance. Substance dependence occurs when a substance is consuming one’s life. Faces Interactive gives a very precise definition of what happens, “… a diagnosis of ‘substance dependence’ refers to…

A chemical dependency assessment is an evaluation that is performed by a trained professional to determine whether an individual is suffering from a drug or alcohol dependency. The evaluation process takes place by using various instruments that include, but are not limited to, the CAGE, the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST), the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), and the Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers (POSIT). Once an assessment instrument is chosen…

Nobody is immune to a relapse. Does a relapse mean that you are a failure in the treatment of recovering individuals? No. Once a client relapses are they sentenced to live out a life within the grips of their addiction? No, absolutely not. It is important however as a treating professional to know exactly what a relapse is, triggers that may lead to a relapse, the signs and symptoms associated with relapse, and the different models in which relapse is described. As defined by Miller and…

Addicts avoiding Jail by claiming addiction is a medical problem More and more drug addicts are avoiding jail time by claiming that addiction is a medical problem. What a person does to his/her body is their own choice, but once he/she starts committing crimes to get more drugs, or as a result of being under the influence, they need to be punished for it. Too many people are getting away with committing crimes by claiming that his/her addiction is a mental health problem and they cannot be held…

Addiction has been around for as long as humans have existed and does not seem to be something that will go away anytime soon. There are various people who choose sides on the war of addiction for different reasons because of how they define the word “addiction” without taking into consideration of how low their knowledge of that word really is. In the book titled “The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirits,” Bruce K. Alexander informs us of how the meaning of addiction…