One of EDU MAP’s project results includes creating a reference handbook for substance abuse that will offer a comprehensive, educational-oriented approach to substance use, abuse, and dependence, with emphasis on prevention.
Today we are starting to acquaint you with the handbook’s structure and the most prominent ideas beginning with Chapter I: Dependence, abuse, and addiction.
In connection with the use of drugs, such terms as ‘abuse’, ‘addiction’, and ‘dependence’, which are often used interchangeably, should be properly defined. According to the book “Pharmacology and Therapeutics”, officially adopted the following usages:
- Abuse: Drug use without medical supervision.
- Addiction: Specific side or adverse effects of drugs caused by prolonged use.
- In the case of addiction WHO recommends the use of the term dependence, subdivided into psychological or physical.