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Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology (Index, Outline)
Introduction to drug addiction
Drugs causing addiction[]
Drugs known to cause addiction include illegal drugs as well as prescription or over-the-counter drugs, according to the definition of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
- Sedatives and Hypnotics:
- Alcohol
- Barbiturates
- Benzodiazepines, particularly flunitrazepam, triazolam, temazepam, and nimetazepam
- Methaqualone and the related quinazolinone sedative-hypnotics
- Opiate and Opioid analgesics
- Morphine and Codeine, the two naturally-occurring opiate analgesics
- Semi-synthetic opiates, such as Heroin (Diacetylmorphine), Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, and Hydromorphone
- Fully synthetic opioids, such as Fentanyl and its analogs, Meperidine/Pethidine, and Methadone
Addictive drugs also include a large number of substrates that are currently considered to have no medical value and are not available over the counter or by prescription.
An article in The Lancet compared the harm and addiction of 20 drugs, using a scale from 0 to 3 for physical addiction, psychological addiction, and pleasure to create a mean score for addiction. Caffeine was not included in the study. The results can be seen in the chart above.
Addictive potency[]
The addictive potency of drugs varies from substance to substance, and from individual to individual
Drugs such as codeine or alcohol, for instance, typically require many more exposures to addict their users than drugs such as heroin or cocaine. Likewise, a person who is psychologically or genetically predisposed to addiction is much more likely to suffer from it.
Although dependency on hallucinogens like LSD ("acid") and psilocybin (key hallucinogen in "magic mushrooms") is listed as Substance-Related Disorder in the DSM-IV, most psychologists do not classify them as addictive drugs.[How to reference and link to summary or text]
Further details on drugs considered to be addictive (Some may be debatable)[]
- Addiction: Alcohol
- Addiction: Analgesics
- Addiction: Barbiturates
- Addiction: Buprenorphine
- Addiction: Butorphanol
- Addiction: Cannabis
- Addiction: Chloral hydrate, Addiction:trichloroethanol and derivatives
- Addiction: Cocaine
- Addiction: Codeine
- Addiction: Dextroproxyp
- Addiction: Dextromethorphan
- Addiction: Ethchlorvynol
- Addiction: Fentanyl and its analogs
- Addiction: Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)
- Addiction: Glutethimide
- Addiction: Heroin (Diacetylmorphine)
- Addiction: Hydrocodone
- Addiction: Hydromorphone (Dilaudid®)
- Addiction: Ketamine
- Addiction: Laxatives
- Addiction: Levo-alpha-acetylmethadol (LAAM)
- Addiction: Meperidine
- Addiction: Meprobamate
- Addiction: Methamphetamine and other Addiction:Amphetamines
- Addiction: Methaqualone and related sedative-hypnotics
- Addiction: Methadone
- Addiction: Methcathinone
- Addiction: Morphine
- Addiction: Nicotine
- Addiction: Oxycodone
- Addiction: Opium
- Synthetic opioid agonists and partial agonists not considered here
- Semi-synthetic opiates not considered here
- Xanax
- Addiction: Paraldehyde (Paral®)
- Addiction: Phencyclidine (PCP)
- Addiction: Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol®)