Drugs, Addiction, and Disease

“Addictive behaviors are a manifestation of the disease, not a cause.” Dr. Raju Hajela, former president of the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine, said. “The disease creates distortions in thinking, feelings and perceptions, which drive people to behave in ways that are not understandable to others around them.” [1] According to Dr. Christine Pace, addiction medicine resident at Boston Medical Center: “Medicine has been slow to embrace what we’ve known for a long time, which is that addiction is a chronic disease…physicians—like many people in this country—continue to stigmatize [addiction] and continue to not really see it as a disease.” [3] “To effectively treat and prevent drug addiction, we need to remove the condition’s social stigma and enhance the involvement of the medical community.” Says National Institute on Drug Abuse director Dr. Nora Volkow. “While scientific advancements in the understanding of addiction have occurred at unprecedented speed in recent years, unanswered questions remain that highlight the need for further research to better define the neurobiological processes involved in addiction.” New knowledge from future research will guide new strategies and change the way clinicians approach the prevention and treatment of addiction, says Dr. Volkow. [11] “Many behaviors driven by addiction are real problems and sometimes criminal acts.” Said Dr. Michael Miller, past president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. “At its core, addiction isn’t just a social problem or a moral problem or a criminal problem. It is about underlying neurology, not outward actions. It is a brain problem whose behaviors manifest in all these other areas. So we have to stop moralizing, blaming, controlling or smirking at the person with the disease of addiction, and start creating opportunities for individuals and families to get help and providing assistance in choosing proper treatment.” [1] “Unlike other diseases, we do little to effectively prevent and reduce risky use, and the vast majority of people in need of addiction treatment do not receive anything that approximates evidence based care.” National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse addiction treatment commission chair Drew Altman wrote. [2] According to National Drug Control Policy director Gil Kerlikowske, 21 million people addicted to drugs, eight percent of Americans twelve years and older, are unable to receive the treatment they need under 38,000 state and local laws. [9] “In approaching the problem, we should keep in mind that the country suffers less from the disease than from the misguided frenzy of suppressing it.” Writes Dr. Lawrence Kolb, a former Assistant Surgeon General at the U.S. Public Health Service. A major move in the right direction is to stop the false propaganda and present drug addiction for what it is—a health problem which requires medical attention and some police measures for adequate control. We can bring this medical problem into proper avenues of control if we…provide addicts treatment for withdrawal from drug use and assistance in dealing with the social and emotional factors that contribute to it; and rid ourselves of the fury that propagandists have injected into our laws, administrative practices, and attitudes concerning addiction.” [10] 

1. “Addiction Now Defined as Brain Disorder, Not Behavior Problem” LiveScience. August 15, 2011. “Matter of Substance: Drug Addiction as Disease, Not subject of Shame”. Bangor Daily News. December 12, 2012. http://www.livescience.com/15563-addiction-defined-brain-disease.html 
2. “With New Research More Doctors Treat Addiction as a Chronic Disease.” WBUR. July 20, 2011. http://www.wbur.org/2011/07/20/addiction-medicine 
3. Borelli, Nelson. “Drug Addiction as a Brian Disorder or Disease”. The Journal of the American Medical Association. May 13, 2009. http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=183885 
4. Clark, Josh. “Addiction as a “Brain Disease”. HowStuffWorks, Inc. 2013. http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/addiction1.htm 
5. Heroux, Paul. “Prescription Drug Addiction: A Medical Condition, Not a Moral Failure”. The Huffington Post. April 30, 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-heroux/prescription-drug-addicti_b_1451840.html 
6. Hughes, David. “Addiction: A Neurological Disorder”. Addiction as Disease. 1997. http://www.medical-online.com/addict.htm 
7. Leshner, Alan. “NIDA Director: Addiction is a Brain Disease.” American Society of Addiction Medicine. February 1998. http://www.asam.org/docs/asam-news-archives/1998-1-2vol13-1ocr.pdf?Status=Master&sfvrsn=2 
8. Little, Morgan. “Drug Addiction a Disease, Not a Moral Failing, White House Says”. The Los Angeles times. June 11, 2012. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/11/news/la-pn-drug-addiction-a-disease-not-a-moral-failing-white-house-says-20120611 
9. Rosenthal, Theodore. “Drug Addiction: A Medical Problem”. American Journal of Public Health. January 1963. http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2105/AJPH.53.1.127-a 
10. T. Buddy. “Addiction is a “Brain Disease”. About.com. November 30, 2004. http://alcoholism.about.com/od/sa/a/blnida041129.htm 
11. Urschell, Harold. “Addiction is a Chronic Medical Disease.” The Partnership at Drugfree.org. Thursday, September 24th, 2009. http://intervene.drugfree.org/2009/09/addiction-is-a-chronic-medical-disease/