PCTH 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: American Psychiatric Association, Adme, Alcohol Tolerance

• School: UBC
• Department: Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Course: PCTH 201
• Professor: Andrew Horne

Document Summary

What is drug abuse: use of a drug outside of its medically intended (therapeutic) purpose, difficult to characterize in absolute terms. Not e(cid:448)e(cid:396)(cid:455)o(cid:374)e usi(cid:374)g a (cid:862)d(cid:396)ug of a(cid:271)use(cid:863) is a(cid:271)usi(cid:374)g e. g. opioids for analgesia. Not e(cid:448)e(cid:396)(cid:455)o(cid:374)e (cid:449)ho a(cid:271)uses a (cid:862)d(cid:396)ug of a(cid:271)use(cid:863) (cid:449)ill p(cid:396)og(cid:396)ess to su(cid:271)sta(cid:374)(cid:272)e dependence/addiction. Any substance/drug has abusive potential: certain drugs are associated with abuse more than others. Beneficial use: use that has positive health, social, or spiritual effects, e. g. medical psychopharmaceuticals; coffee/tea to increase alertness; moderate consumption of red wine; sacramental use of ayahuasca or peyote. Casual/non-problematic use: recreational, casual, other use that has negligible health or social effects. Problematic use: use that begins to have negative consequences for individual, friends/family, or society, e. g. impaired driving; binge consumption; harmful routes of administration. Chronic dependence: use that has become habitual and compulsive despite negative health and social effects. Aside from specific pharmacodynamic drug effects, two other processes can occur in presence of a drug (more inclusively, substance)