Introduction

Drug abuse research became a subject of sustained scientific interest by a small number of investigators in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Despite their creative efforts to understand drug abuse in terms of general advances in biomedical science, the medical literature of the early twentieth century is littered with now discarded theories of drug dependence, such as autointoxication and antibody toxins, and with failed approaches to treatment.

Content

What I learned in this topic is addiction is a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive, or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences. The initial decision to take drugs is voluntary for most people, but repeated drug use can lead to brain changes that challenge an addicted person’s self control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges to take drugs.