Talk:Drug withdrawal

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 January 2019 and 17 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Annabeckmann727.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 19:52, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Confusion

This page confuses physical dependence with addiction, which is a purely psychological phenomenon. Physical dependence on, e.g., an opioid used for pain control does *NOT* imply addiction, and conversely it is quite possible to become psychologically addicted to drugs (e.g., marijuana) that induce little or no physical dependence. If there is no objection I propose to rewrite this article to make this distinction clear.

User: karn

That would be great if you could do a rewrite. I would humbly suggest dividing the document into Psychological Withdrawal and Physical Withdrawal. You may want to coordinate this with the discussion on Talk:Addiction -- Tim 01:57, 2004 Oct 9 (UTC)

If someone could pin down the difference between physiological and psychological withdrawal I would be pleased and impressed, but, quit honestly, I don't think that there IS one. In both cases, your brain gets X chronically and re-wires in order to reach a new homeostasis; when X is removed that homeostasis is lost, resulting in nasty side-effects. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.68.239.5 (talk) 21:09, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the difference is fairly clear from a purely biological standpoint depending on how much scientific research is behind the substance involved. If there is a detectable change in brain physiology caused by habituation to the substances' effects, which cause unpleasant symptoms upon sudden discontinuation of the substance after habituation, physical withdrawal is said to be present. Anything over and above what can be directly tied to the physiological changes brought on by the habituation is considered to be psychological dependency. (See physical dependency.) This of course leaves the grey area of substances whose effects on brain physiology (or even body physiology) remain unresearched or unresearched in humans. It also does nothing to tease apart the line between physiological and psychological withdrawal in substances such as alcohol, where the addictive syndrome (alcoholism) is known to have both physiological and psychological components.

You're correct in that there's theory saying synaptic connections in the brain could conceivably rewire themselves in the presence of substances, and the definition of physiological dependency may be expanded to include these neuronal rewirings. However, as I understand it, a withdrawal from a physical dependency and a withdrawal from a psychological dependency are two different things.

The vocabulary surrounding the whole topic is very precarious as well, since there's words that get used interchangeably that are not interchangeable. Habituation, addiction, dependency, withdrawal, etcetera all have synonyms which do not carry the full meaning of the original usage. I think that edits to clarify the lines between physiological vs psychological addiction (with psychological addiction defined as the syndrome combination of psychological disorders outlined in the DSM IV that makes up the rest of the spectrum.) Trying to expand on psychological withdrawal should probably cite the DSM IV categories on substance dependency and substance abuse.Wrin (talk) 08:12, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

My first time posting here in "Talk", so please forgive me for any protocol missteps. I was moved, however, to waste no time in expressing my serious objections to both the tone and substance of this article. I agree with the comment by karn [], but I would state the matter more strongly: this article is full of inappropriately judgmental and disparaging references toward those among us who may be unfortunate enough to experience true drug withdrawal. The writer appears to suggest that drug tolerance and withdrawal are primarily a hazard for members of the drug underclass, people who "abuse" dangerous and illegal drugs for "recreational" purposes.

The legitimate use of opioids, for example, for treatment of chronic pain is mentioned only as an apparent afterthought, a minor exception to the implicit general rule: We're basically talking about bad things that happen to junkies and other drug fiends!

Why draw any such (moral) distinctions? The circumstances giving rise to dependence/withdrawal are tangential, at best, to the stated subject matter of the article. I could parse the text line by line to demonstrate my point, but surely that isn't necessary. This article should be taken down, without delay, and replaced with a simple definition for a stub. Let someone else take a crack at it. Stuart Hammett — Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.249.151.41 (talk) 16:02, 19 August 2014 (UTC)

Economics

I would like someone to explain the economic meaning of this word.

Simple! You cannot bear the withdrawal symptoms, buy a pack of fags and the tobacco industry rejoices! -- 194.89.2.109 16:57, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

DSM-IV

There are criteria for withdrawl established for different drugs in the DSM-IV TR. Those should also be considered part of this article. 70.48.159.12 16:43, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

All meanings of the word withdrawal?

Dear all, I am from Sweden and my mother tounge is therefore Swedish. My level of English is faily good. However, my fellow countymen here at work are mostly not that skilld. It very often ends up with direct translations that makes it more "Swinglings" than anything else... Mostly understandable, but clearly not correct. I just came across the word withdrawal in a form we use internally but regularly distribute to customers worldwide. I felt that this must be the wrong word, but couldn´t come up with the right word. Therefore I wanded to check what meanings Wikipedia (the English site) described. Perhaps I am wrong this time (most unlikely...). But can not withdrawal describe "pulling back from a market" or retreating troups for example.

I loved the comment on the economic meaning! (Of course it means "withdrawing money from the hole in the wall (ATM) to by the fags...?)) However I would appreciate some serious comments (Im I wrong or not to start with).

I am not suited to re-write the article, it should be done by someone with higher qualifications in the English language (British such preferably for me).

I will now find the answer I want elsewhere...

Inaccurate

The section on drug abuse withdrawal is highly inaccurate if not guess work. Can anything cite this? The statement that all drugs affect dopamine is ridiculous, along with the statement that says the brain will be eventually devoid of all pleasure. This seems like it was taken from unscientific low level propaganda. This needs a rewrite and a citation or two.

--Shplongl (talk) 03:15, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Craving without withdrawal

I think this article misses the experience also called 'craving' that occurs during long-term abstinence. In this situation, the addict feels an extremely intense urge to use/drink. This may occur at any time during the abstinence (1 day to 20 yrs). It may or may not be accompanied by a trigger. It may or may not be preceded by a cognition justifying use ("I can stop after just one", "the consequences of my prior use weren't that bad"). Addressing cravings is a key part of 'relapse prevention,' during periods of abstinence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.129.248.3 (talk) 16:45, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Dopamine and neurobiology

Reward from any drug is mediated by dopamine at the level of communication between the Ventral Tegmentum (VT) and the Nucleus Accumbens (NA). Inputs to the VT can be mediated by any of a number of receptors (opiate, cannabanoid, acetyl choline (nicotine))

Lack of emotion in response to any particular drug occurs when the circuits connecting the limbic system and both the VT and NA are atrophied, as the result of ongoing use. This would more affect response to triggers, than to other stimuli. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.129.248.3 (talk) 16:51, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Euphoria is not strongly related to addiction

This article attempts to strongly relate euphoric aspects of drugs with their addictive nature. While there may be some small degree of pleasure-centre connection, some of the most addictive substances (eg nicotine) are not strongly related to any euphoric effect, whearas some of the most euphoric (eg:extacy MDMA) are not addictive.

I'm tempted just to delete several paragraphs as lacking any citation or basis in reality.  ??? --Jaymax (talk) 00:54, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome

Does the coverage here of this topic exceed the suggestions in WP:SUMMARY ?Jim.henderson (talk) 11:17, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

RM

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: move to Drug withdrawal Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 18:21, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

---

Withdrawal → Withdrawal (drug dependency) – The word "withdrawal" has many different meanings, and most of the meanings of this word are unrelated to drug dependency. Withdrawal should redirect to Withdrawal (disambiguation) instead of only redirecting to one specific meaning of this term. Jarble (talk) 01:54, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

• Support per nom. In ictu oculi (talk) 14:48, 29 June 2013 (UTC)
• Neutral for now... page view statistics, Jarble? Red Slash 07:38, 30 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support, as I agree it's unlikely this is the primary topic. But perhaps consider natural disambiguation: Drug withdrawal? Powers ^T 15:19, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
• Support Drug withdrawal LtPowers hit the nail on the head on this one. Drug withdrawal is a more appropriate and natural title.--Labattblueboy (talk) 00:43, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Merger proposal

I propose to merge Cold turkey into this page, because it’s just a slang term for drug withdrawal. Brinerat (talk) 12:54, 28 December 2020 (UTC)

That's not true, though the topics are related. Cold turkey refers to a particular practice of stopping all use of a certain drug or habitual behaviour, or whatever, after being a heavy user, without any reduction in use before quitting. This method works for some individuals, but it can also make quitting much more difficult, and therefore less likely in others. For some substances (namely alcohol), quitting cold turkey after being a very heavy user can result in death.

Cold turkey is not a necessary condition for withdrawal effects to occur. Firejuggler86 (talk) 09:57, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Closing; consensus not to merge on the grounds that the topics are distinct. Klbrain (talk) 07:25, 15 June 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Technical and Scientific Communication

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 22 August 2022 and 9 December 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Khinsonycp (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Vdanquah (talk) 15:59, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

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miy 2402:3A80:1E10:A69F:0:49:73B0:C301 (talk) 20:50, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

Citations please!

What the hell is this trash. There are absolutely zero citations on a page dealing with such a complex issue. It is insane that such controversial claims are being made without use of citations.

Article needs complete review. Taifraser (talk) 09:56, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

Pharma

Side effect of Beta blocker Bradycardia Drug with drawal, sudden withdrawal may induce angina With ischemic heart disease 41.235.35.46 (talk) 01:39, 6 January 2024 (UTC)