Signs of addiction

Long-term use of other barbiturates can also lead to physical and psychological dependence. Symptoms of dependence include the feeling that a person cannot relax or sleep without taking a barbiturate. Another sign of addiction is a tendency to increase the dosage. 

Other experts explain the signs of addiction as the Three Cs ... 

GHB can become addictive if it is used over a long period of time. People who have used GHB every day for at least two months have shown signs of addiction and have experienced withdrawal symptoms when they stopped using the drug. Those who use GHB every two to four hours for several days experience withdrawal symptoms, too. These include insomnia, anxiety, tachycardia, tremors, and agitation. Some people suffer more severe effects, including delirium, psychosis, severe sweating, and hallucinations. 

Physical examination The physician needs to assess the patient s degree of dependence. In examining the patient, the physician attempts to ascertain clinical signs of addiction, that is, fresh needle marks, constricted or dilated pnpils, deviated nasal septum, and signs or S5miptoms of withdrawal or the absence of withdrawal, that is, rhinorrhea, chills, restlessness, irritability, perspiration, nausea, or diarrhea. 

Psychosis, often clinically indistinguishable from schizophrenia (a mental disorder)—this is the most serious sign of amphetamine addiction. 

Although GHB is primarily used for recreational purposes, cases of addiction to GHB have been reported. Some GHB users go on binges during which they take GHB around the clock (every 2-4 hours) for a few days. As the user takes additional doses, he or she develops tolerance to the effects of the drug (GHB becomes less effective with subsequent doses, so the user takes even more). Eventually, the binge GHB user exhibits signs of withdrawal, such as anxiety, insomnia, delirium and hallucinations, muscle cramping and tremors, and tachycardia (abnormally fast heart rate). 

The pupils become dilated and there are associated signs of hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system, such as hypertension and pilomotor stimulation. The mechanism(s) underlying tolerance and dependence are poorly understood. While acute activation of Gi/o-coupled receptors leads to inhibition of adenylyl cyclase, chronic activation of such receptors produces an increase in cAMP accumulation, particularly evident upon withdrawal of the inhibitory agonist. This phenomenon, referred to as adenylyl cyclase superactivation, is believed to play an important role in opioid addiction. 

With chronic exposure to addictive drugs, the brain shows signs of adaptation. For example, if morphine is used at short intervals, the dose has to be progressively increased over the course of several days to maintain rewarding or analgesic effects. This phenomenon is called tolerance. It may become a serious problem because of increasing side effects—eg, respiratory depression—that do not show much tolerance and may lead to fatalities associated with overdose. 

During the 1940s, research indicated that barbiturates produced intoxication and were addictive. People showed signs of withdrawal when they stopped taking barbiturates. 

LSD and Psilocybin I have been unable to identify any sign at all of addiction, organic injury, or other, in some way unpleasant aftereffects. .. In my opinion, however, LSD and psilocybin cannot and should not become "pleasure drugs" for the general public Their effects are such that they lead one beyond the customary (and constraining) coordinate system of space and time, and afford insights into the heaven and hell of one s own self — which can be dangerous to one who is not cut out for that, and hence is not prepared. 

These are the objective signs of withdrawal distress which can be measured the subjective indications are equally severe and the illness reaches its peak within 48-72 h after the last dose of the opioid, gradually subsiding thereafter for the next 5-10 days. The withdrawal syndrome proper is self-limiting and most addicts will survive it with no medical assistance whatever (this is known as kicking the habit, cold turkey ). Abrupt withdrawal is inhumane, but with the use of such drugs as methadone, it is possible to reduce the distress of withdrawal very considerably. ... 

---