Genetics, environment, and personality all contribute to your risk for alcoholism and drug addiction. There are many warning signs of addiction, including complaints from friends and family about your behavior. By Hedy Marks, MPH Medically reviewed by Pat F. Bass III, MD, MPH From cocaine to gambling, addiction takes many forms, but alcohol and drug dependency may be the most pervasive forms of addiction. Every year, alcoholism and drug addiction contribute to the deaths of more than 100,000 Americans.   Alcoholism and drug addiction are chronic conditions characterized by changes in the brain that cause a person to have an...

Principles of Effective Treatment

Gaps in Britain’s harm reduction defences of the kind previously highlighted are permitting a minor resurgence in HIV infection. The most compelling findings were reported by researchers from the Health Protection Agency and the Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour. To model HIV spread from 1990 to 2003 they combined the results of HIV tests on injectors attending drug services in England and Wales with tests on injectors recruited on the street and in non-treatment locations. The proportion infected with HIV bottomed out at 0.5% in 1999 but then more than doubled in the first years of the new millennium, reaching...

Figure 2.3 Past Month Nonmedical Use of Types of Psychotherapeutic Drugs among Persons Aged 12 or Older: 2002-2010 The number and percentage of persons aged 12 or older who were current users of hallucinogens in 2010 (1.2 million or 0.5 percent) were similar to those in 2009 (1.3 million or 0.5 percent). These include similar numbers and percentages for current users of Ecstasy, with 695,000 (0.3 percent) current users in 2010 and 760,000 (0.3 percent) current users in 2009.   Age   • The rate of current illicit drug use varied by age. Among youths aged 12 to 17 in 2010, the rate increased from 4.0 percent at ages 12 or 13 to...