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Article: Addiction: Concepts and Definitions
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol, and Addictive Behavior
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ADDICTION: CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
This article deals with a number of concepts related to the basic nature of addiction, that are widely used but often misused, and that have undergone significant changes since the term
addiction
first came into the common vocabulary. In the following discussion, the terms are grouped according to themes, rather than being arranged in alphabetic order.
ABUSE AND MISUSE
In everyday English,
abuse
carries the connotations of improper, perverse, or corrupt use or practice, as in child abuse, or abuse of power. As applied to drugs, however, the term is difficult to define and carries different meanings in different contexts. In relation to therapeutic ...