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Drug withdrawal, drug withdrawal syndrome, or substance withdrawal syndrome [1] is the group of symptoms that occur upon the abrupt discontinuation or decrease in the intake of pharmaceutical or recreational drugs. In order for the symptoms of withdrawal to occur, one must have first developed a form of drug dependence.
Clinicians use drug detoxification to reduce or relieve withdrawal symptoms while helping an addicted person adjust to living without drug use. Drug detoxification does not aim to treat addiction but rather represents an early step within long-term treatment. Detoxification may be achieved drug-free or may use medications as an aspect of treatment.
In Robert Scharse's study of Mexican-American users, for example, some interpreted withdrawal as a sign of emerging drug dependence, and subsequently reduced or quit their drug use. For others, the withdrawal experience caused an obsession over the prospect of withdrawal, encouraging them to repeatedly use in order to avoid it.
Drug detoxification (informally, detox) is variously construed or interpreted as a type of "medical" intervention or technique in regards to a physical dependence mediated by a drug; as well as the process and experience of a withdrawal syndrome or any of the treatments for acute drug overdose (toxidrome).
Substance dependence, also known as drug dependence, is a biopsychological situation whereby an individual's functionality is dependent on the necessitated re-consumption of a psychoactive substance because of an adaptive state that has developed within the individual from psychoactive substance consumption that results in the experience of withdrawal and that necessitates the re-consumption ...
addictive drug – psychoactive substances that with repeated use are associated with significantly higher rates of substance use disorders, due in large part to the drug's effect on brain reward systems; dependence – an adaptive state associated with a withdrawal syndrome upon cessation of repeated exposure to a stimulus (e.g., drug intake)
According to the DSM, the clinical criteria for "drug dependence" (or what we refer to as addiction), include compulsive drug use despite harmful consequences, inability to stop using a drug, failure to meet work, social, or family obligations, and sometimes (depending on the drug), tolerance and withdrawal.
"Substance use pertains to using select substances such as alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, etc. that can cause dependence or harmful side effects."On the other hand, substance abuse is the use of drugs such as prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, or alcohol for purposes other than what they are intended for or using them in excessive ...