Addiction advisor.co.uk is a leading online provider of free medical information about Drug Addiction.

This part of the website contains medical information on the words associated with drug addiction and drug treatment.

What is Substance Abuse?

The phrase substance misuse is the medical terms used to descrobe the use of illegal drugs, or the improper use of alcohol, prescribed medication, over the counter medicines and volatile substances such as aerosols and glue.

Substance abuse is therefore a more generic term including drug abuse, alcohol addiction and solvent abuse.

Definition of Substance abuse

There are many ways of defining this - either based on medical conditions or social effects. One widely used definition is:
Substance abuse refers to the overindulgence in and dependence of a drug or other chemical leading to effects that are detrimental to the individual's physical and mental health, or the welfare of others.

The actual medical definitions of abuse, dependence and addiction have precise meanings as the following definition of substance misue shows.

Substance abuse may lead to addiction or substance dependence. Medically, physiologic dependence requires the development of tolerance leading to withdrawal symptoms. Both abuse and dependence are distinct from addiction which involves a compulsion to continue using the substance despite the negative consequences, and may or may not involve chemical dependency. Dependence almost always implies abuse, but abuse frequently occurs without dependence, particularly when an individual first begins to abuse a substance. Dependence involves physiological processes while substance abuse reflects a complex interaction between the individual, the abused substance and society

Drug Abuse

Drug abuse is one part of substance misuse. Some of the most commonly abused drugs include alcohol, amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, heroin, morphine, and other opiates (codeine, hydrocodone, etc).

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