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Causes

By Mayo Clinic staff

Like many psychological disorders, drug addiction and dependence depends on several things. Two main factors include:

  • Environment. Environmental factors, including your family's beliefs and attitudes and exposure to a peer group that encourages drug use, seem to play a role in initial drug use.
  • Genes. Once you've started using a drug, the development into addiction may be influenced by inherited traits.

Changing brain pathways
Physical addiction appears to occur when repeated use of a drug alters the way your brain feels pleasure. The addicting drug causes physical changes to some nerve cells (neurons) in your brain. Neurons use chemicals called neurotransmitters to communicate.

Risk factors Symptoms
References
  1. Commonly abused drugs. National Institutes of Health. http://www.drugabuse.gov/DrugPages/DrugsofAbuse.html. Accessed June 28, 2011.
  2. Samet JA. Drug abuse and dependence. In: Goldman L, et al. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/158928328-6/0/1492/148.html?tocnode=54613109&fromURL=148.html. Accessed June 28, 2011.
  3. Weaver MF, et al. Overview of the recognition and management of the drug abuser. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 28, 2011.
  4. Substance dependence. In: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR. 4th ed. Arlington, Va.: American Psychiatric Association; 2000. http://www.psychiatryonline.com. Accessed July 11, 2011.
  5. Renner JA Jr, et al. Drug addiction. In: Stern TA, et al. Massachusetts General Hospital Comprehensive Clinical Psychiatry. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/books/about.do?about=true&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-323-04743-2..X5001-X&isbn=978-0-323-04743-2&uniqId=262392956-3. Accessed June 28, 2011.
DS00183 Oct. 1, 2011

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