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Medical Forum / General / General / May 2006I Need A Measure
For a grant application I'm writing, I need to make a table of different addictive substances, and their "degree" of addictiveness. Does anybody have any ideas what numerical quantity would be used to measure the addictive "strength" of a drug? Is modern medicine een capable of measuring such a quantity, yet? > For a grant application I'm writing, I need to make a table of different > addictive substances, and their "degree" of addictiveness. Does anybody > have any ideas what numerical quantity would be used to measure the > addictive "strength" of a drug? Is modern medicine een capable of > measuring such a quantity, yet? People have at least done rough estimates of some aspects of addictive potential; I'm not sure how quantitative it is. Dr. Peter Proctor posted this ranking of "reinforcement" in talk.politics.drugs a while back: " A rough ranking on "reinforcement" is smoked nicotine is number one, followed by smoked cocaine, then injectable opiates. Oral alcohol, stimulants such as meth, other sedative hypnotics, and oral opiates are all about equally reinforcing, Followed by intranasal cocaine and caffeine. then marijuana and the hallucinogens ( the latter are hardly reinforcing at all). Note that the dosage form is important-- smoking or injection give higher instantaneous levels and are thus more reinforcing. But not enough to really justify much higher penalties." Don't have a link, but it's been discussed in the drugs groups a few times. Of course you could do a Medline and other searches for it. ..as a 20-yr heroin addict who has also quit smoking and alcohol, i am annoyed by this bald statement that nicotine is harder to withdraw from than heroin. Severe heroin withdrawal is weeks of intense physical pain in every part - bones, teeth, etc - with violent vomiting, clonic spasm etc etc, insomnia coupled with exhaustion and PROFOUND depression... this is followed by up to a year of anhedonia, which is the simple inability to feel pleasure. ANY pleasure. It's rough, believe me, and tobacco is not remotely as difficult. There are essentially two types of dependence, physical and emotional. Physical addictive substances in order of intensity would run heroin, barbiturates (which can be fatal on withdrawal), alcohol and benzodiazipines like valium or xanax, and finally tobacco. Psychological dependence is entirely different. The order there would be crack cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, alcohol, rock cocaine, cannabis, nicotine, benzodiazapines and barbiturates. Cocaine and cannabis have relatively minor (if any) physical effects on withdrawal. That's subjective, but it's subjective TRUTH. - Ðª× It's not just that it's subjective, but it's anecdotal--You can't generalize from one experience; it's impossible to know the possible confounding factors; etc., etc.--the usual problems with anecdotal evidence. Addicts have generally described the physical effects of heroin withdrawal as similar to a bad case of the flu. But some people can have severe psychological problems withdrawing from anything--including overeating. > ..as a 20-yr heroin addict who has also quit smoking and alcohol, i am > annoyed by this bald statement that nicotine is harder to withdraw from [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > That's subjective, but it's subjective TRUTH. - Ðª× audaxrex@hotmail.com wrote in news:1148735562.790375.223120@ 38g2000cwa.googlegroups.com: > ..as a 20-yr heroin addict who has also quit smoking and alcohol, i am > annoyed by this bald statement that nicotine is harder to withdraw from [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Cocaine and cannabis have relatively minor (if any) physical effects on > withdrawal. Without hard numbers for volumetric concentrations of some kind of rebound chemical, apparently the only thing we all agree on is that withdrawal from marijuana is pretty benign. My dad was an alcoholism psychiatrist, and his stories such detox were horriffic. Hardcore booze-heads experience something called the DT's, aka. delirium tremens, a scary combination of hallucinations and the shakes. IIRC, it can also be fatal. I don't buy your claims regarding meth and crack. The boundary between physical and psychological withdrawal has always been very blurry, because so much is still not understood about the chemical mechanics of brain function. Any addiction that is "merely" psychological must inevitably repond well to hypnosis. If what you say about meth and crack were true, there would be a great boon to hypnotists in such treatment, and the problems would quickly become trivial. I won't accept your claims about those drugs without hard evidence. |
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