-=> Note:
Copied (from: PHARMACY) by Douglas Anderson using timEd.
29 Oct 97 07:22, TOM JANTZ wrote to DOUGLAS ANDERSON:
 ->> Well, the term "addictive" is kind of a loaded term.
 TJ> What IS THE Difference BETWEEN ADDICTION AND dependence. I ran out of
 TJ> meds and started getting the shakes and I was having strange feelings
 TJ> almost like an LSD trip. I think they are as addictive as opiates
Physical and psychological dependence means that if you stop taking the drug 
you will go through a withdrawal syndrome, such as the shakes and strange 
feelings you were having.  Addiction implies self-medication (you take the 
drug to get high), drug seeking behavior (you buy the drug illegally or try 
to con a doctor into prescribing it for you), illegal activity to gain drugs 
(you either steal the drugs or steal to get money to buy them), and other 
behaviors are included.  Everyone who is addicted is dependent, but not 
everyone who is dependent is addicted.  I take blood pressure medicine.  If I 
quit taking my medicine I go through a well-defined withdrawal syndrome.  I 
am physically dependent on my blood pressure medicine.  But calling me 
addicted to it would be ridiculous.  Medical society here in the US has a 
very poor understanding in general of dependence and addiction, and it leads 
to further misuse of medications and poor treatment of dependent patients.
Douglas
doogie@fiona.umsmed.edu
--- Msged/386 4.10
---------------