Dependence (tolerance) Versus Addiction
http://www.musc.edu/catalyst/archive/2005/co9-2pain.html
(This is just a portion of the document)
Hennessy chairs the MUSC Pain Committee, which is responsible for policies that reach across the institution. “There is so much more to pain than people, including health care professionals, realize,” she said. “It can be a disease. One of the hardest things for people who suffer from chronic pain is the social stereotype that they are complainers or drug addicts because they need help in managing their pain. There are differences among dependence, tolerance, and addiction that often are not recognized, even by health care workers.”
The difference Hennessy referred to is taught during the fundamental years of most types of health care study. Dependence means that a person’s physiology becomes so accustomed to a substance that he or she would experience withdrawal symptoms if the medication were stopped. Withdrawal (or abstinence syndrome) is not necessarily an indicator of addiction. Addiction occurs when a psychological dependence upon a substance facilitates the use of that substance for unintended purposes, and causes continued use despite the harm it causes. Tolerance describes another physiological phenomenon characterized by a decrease in the therapeutic effect of a substance given stable dosage levels, but doesn’t always indicate an addiction. Characteristics of addiction are not just characteristics of abuse of opiates but can also be manifested through other agents of abuse like food, exercise, sex, and alcohol.
I have a husband who is in chronic pain and I'm a nurse, so this topic is right in there for me! Plus, I use clonazepam for a certain disorder, and Provigil for upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS).
