ISBN: | 978-5-5081-5540-7 |
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Opioid dependency is a medical diagnosis characterized by an individual`s inability to stop using opioids (morphine, heroin, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, etc.) even when objectively it is in his or her best interest to do so. In 1964 the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence introduced "dependence" as "A cluster of physiological, behavioural and cognitive phenomena of variable intensity, in which the use of a psychoactive drug (or drugs) takes on a high priority. The necessary descriptive characteristics are preoccupation with a desire to obtain and take the drug and persistent drug-seeking behaviour. Determinants and problematic consequences of drug dependence may be biological, psychological or social, and usually interact". The core concept of the WHO definition of "drug dependence" requires the presence of a strong desire or a sense of compulsion to take the drug; and the WHO and DSM-IV-TR clinical guidelines for a definite diagnosis of "dependence" require that three or more of the following six characteristic features be experienced or exhibited: