Chemical Dependence Criteria

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

How to understand if you or your loved one has a chemical addiction?

Or are you / he just "indulging" or abusing?

Many have asked this question, but few have the idea to look for answers from official medicine. All the criteria by which this can be assessed are quite specifically described and, at the same time, are not something supernatural or intricate. On the website of the World Health Organization, this is stated in a simple language, with a minimum number of medical terms and names. I will give this information here.

In the tenth revision of the International Classifier of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10), addiction syndrome is defined as a complex of physiological, behavioral and cognitive phenomena in which the use of a psychoactive * substance or class of psychoactive substances begins to occupy a more important place in the human value system. than other forms of behavior that were previously more important to him.

It is possible to finally assert that a person is addicted only if there are three or more of the following signs, manifested simultaneously and repeatedly during the previous year:

1. Strong desire or feeling of irresistible craving for taking a psychoactive substance;

2. Difficulty controlling substance use behavior: onset, end, or consumption levels;

3. Physiological withdrawal state that occurs when the intake of a psychoactive substance is stopped or decreased, as evidenced by the following disorders: withdrawal syndrome characteristic of this substance; or the use of the same (or similar) psychoactive substance for the purpose of relieving or preventing withdrawal symptoms;

4. Signs of tolerance, manifested in the need to increase the doses of a psychoactive substance to achieve the effects initially achieved with the use of lower doses (obvious examples of this are people with alcohol or opiate dependence, daily doses of which can completely disable or lead to death of intolerant users);

5. Progressive neglect of alternative pleasures or interests due to the use of a psychoactive substance, an increase in the time required to acquire or take the substance and to recover from its effects;

6. Continued use of a psychoactive substance despite clear signs of obvious harmful effects such as liver damage from excessive alcohol consumption or substance-related cognitive impairment. Also, it can be material and other losses.

* A psychoactive substance (surfactant) is any type of drug, including alcohol and tobacco.

Information taken from the website of the World Health Organization (WHO)