What is Drug Dependence? And its components?

As per the definition of WHO…
“It’s a state, psychic and sometimes physically in which the user has a compelling desire to continue taking the drug either to experience its effects or to avoid the discomfort of its absence.
It’s a state resulting from the interaction between the living organism and drug. It can be said that the drug dependant person has lost his ability to keep his drug intake under control. He finds it hard to function when he is not under the influence of drug. Drugs can cause either psychic or physical dependence or dependence of both types together.

Drug Dependence has two distinct components as,
1.Psychic dependence:
It’s a condition characterized by an emotional or mental drive to continue taking drug whose effects the user feels to maintain his sense of optimal well being. When the desire to continue taking the drug becomes a psychic craving or compulsion, the users behavior is termed as drug seeking behavior.

2.Physical dependence:
It’s a state which shows severe physical disturbances when the administration of the drug is suspended. It’s particularly likely to occur in those who have developed tolerance to the desire drug effect and take increasingly greater doses to gain the feeling that they desire.
The biochemical changes takes place especially in the central nervous system by taking the drug in large amounts for varying period of time. The nerve cell soon seems to require the drugs presence to keep functioning normally.
When a physically dependence person is not given the drug then he develops a withdrawal syndrome. The withdrawal syndromes are resulting form malfunctioning of various systems of the body and syndromes that develops depends on the type of drug used and the amount taken by the user. It may be quite severe in a person who has been taking massive amounts of drugs.

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