Substance abuse is defined as excessive use of any substance that has the potential for addiction. Read more: What Is Substance Abuse? Article
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How to Quit Smoking: 13 Tips to End Addiction
Quitting smoking is a great way to improve your health. Learn tips and techniques to quit smoking and kick the cigarette habit...
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Sugar Addiction Facts: Cravings, Hidden Sugar, and More in Pictures
Learn about sugar addiction to see why we often crave sweets and binge on carbs. Learn how sugar affects the brain and get tips...
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Marijuana Addiction and Abuse
Cannabis use disorder is when you're addicted to marijuana. Learn more about this condition and how to treat it.
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Strange Addictions: Sugar, Porn, Ice Cubes and More
Are you addicted? People aren’t only addicted to drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. Patterns of addiction can be found in less...
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Mental Health: Celebrities Who Are Open About Addiction
Addiction affects people from all walks of life. See celebrities who’ve battled drug and alcohol use disorders and shared their...
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What are opioids used to treat? See AnswerRelated Disease Conditions
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Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug abuse and addiction is a chronic disease that causes drug-seeking behavior and drug use despite negative consequences to the user and those around him. Though the initial decision to use drugs is voluntary, changes in the brain caused by repeated drug abuse can affect a person's self-control and ability to make the right decisions and increase the urge to take drugs. Drug abuse and addiction are preventable.
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Hookahs vs. Cigarette Smoking (Addiction and Health Dangers)
A hookah is a water pipe that's used to smoke flavored tobacco like watermelon, licorice, coconut, chocolate, cherry, mint, apple, and cappuccino. The use of this type of tobacco smoking began in ancient India and Persia centuries ago. You can find hookah cafes all over the world, for example, the U.S., France, Russia, Britain, and the Middle East. New forms of electronic hookah are now available. Some people who smoke tobacco think that hookahs are less dangerous to their health because the smoke is filtered through water, but the smoke from hookahs contain the same cancer-causing chemicals that cigarette smoke does. Smoking tobacco via cigarettes or hookah are both dangerous to your health.
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Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse
Alcoholism is a disease that includes alcohol craving and continued drinking despite repeated alcohol-related problems, such as losing a job or getting into trouble with the law. It can cause myriad health problems, including cirrhosis of the liver, birth defects, heart disease, stroke, psychological problems, and dementia. Counseling and a few medications can be effective for alcoholism treatment.
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Cocaine and Crack Addiction
Cocaine is an addictive stimulant that is smoked, snorted, and injected. Crack is cocaine that comes in a rock crystal that is heated to form vapors, which are then smoked. Cocaine has various effects on the body, including dilating pupils, constricting blood vessels, increasing body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure.
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Munchausen Syndrome
Munchausen syndrome is a factitious disorder and attention-seeking syndrome in which an individual pretends to have physical or psychological symptoms in order to gain attention. Symptoms and signs vary from heart symptoms, chest pain, and fainting to ear problems and hallucinations. Sufferers tend to seek help from multiple care providers, seem overly pleased at being subjected to tests and procedures, and have vague symptoms that are inconsistent with test results. There is no particular treatment approach that is consistently effective in treating Munchausen syndrome.
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Bath Salts
Ingredients of the drug bath salts include mephedrone, methylone, MDPV, or MDPK. Feeling high and sexually stimulated are symptoms of bath salt abuse. The primary goals for the treatment of addiction symptoms are abstinence, relapse prevention, and rehabilitation.
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What Is the Difference Between Substance Abuse and Substance Dependence?
Substance abuse is the use of drugs or alcohol to the point where it causes problems in your life. Substance dependence (addiction) is when you are unable to quit using drugs or alcohol.
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What Are the Top Five Health Concerns?
The top five health concerns today are hypertension, depression, high cholesterol, diabetes, and substance use disorders.
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How Do I Confront My Teen About Drugs?
Rules surrounding drug use should be clear and consistent to encourage your teen to follow them.
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Can You Become Schizophrenic From Drugs?
Schizophrenia is a severe long-term mental condition that interferes with a person's ability to distinguish their thoughts from reality. Drug use may lead to the development of schizophrenia.
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What Is Substance Use Disorder?
Substance use disorder (or drug addiction) is a psychiatric disorder in people. In the disorder, people uncontrollably use a substance (legal or illegal drugs or medications) despite harmful consequences.
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Prevention & Wellness
- Cases of Deadly Heart Infection Tied to Opioid Abuse Rose Sharply During Pandemic
- Record Number of Fatal Drug ODs for Pregnant, Postpartum Women
- As Alcohol Abuse Declines Among Teens, Marijuana Abuse Soars
- Valium, Xanax Prescriptions Could Raise Overdose Risk in Youth
- Walmart Offers $3 Billion to Settle Opioid Lawsuits
- FDA Warns of Animal Tranquilizer in Illicit Drugs
- Fatal Heart Infections Linked to Opioid Abuse Have Tripled Among Young Americans
- In Canada, Program That Supplies Safe Opioids to Addicts Is Saving Lives
- Use of Pot, Hallucinogens Soaring Among Young Americans
- LSD Is Making a Comeback Among Young Americans
- Many Who Need Opioid OD Antidote the Most Can't Afford It
- 3 Big Pharmacy Chains Must Pay $650 Million to Ohio Counties for Role in Opioid Crisis
- Meth Plays Big Role in Drug ODs in Rural America
- Wave of Opioid Overdoses Expected to Hit U.S. Rural, Urban Areas
- Methadone ODs Didn't Rise in Pandemic, Supporting Use as At-Home Treatment
- Intentional Overdoses Rise Among U.S. Kids, Teens
- Scientists Are Developing Patch That Warns of Oncoming Drug Overdose
- U.S. Fatal Drug ODs Rose Again in 2021, But Increase Is Slowing
- Pandemic Brought Surge in Fatal Drug Overdoses in U.S. Teens
- Police Records Show Use of Illegal Fentanyl-Laced Pills Soaring
- Too Few People With Opioid Disorder Receive Best Treatments
- Some Teens Are Overdosing With Meds Prescribed for ADHD, Anxiety
- J&J Finalizes $26 Billion Opioid Settlement
- As Fentanyl Overdoses Rise, So Does Use of 'Party Drug' Test Strips
- CDC Proposed Changes to Opioid Painkiller Guidelines
- Young Americans Lost Almost 1.5 Million Years of Life to Opioids Between 2015 and 2019
- U.S. Fentanyl Deaths Soaring, Especially in West
- Opioid Overdoses Rose by a Third During Pandemic
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