Advances in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety is a peer-reviewed open access journal focusing on studies pertaining to rare adverse drug reactions, drug efficacy evaluations, drug interaction quantifications, patterns of drug usage, herbal medicines, randomized control trials, case control studies, cross-sectional studies, case cross over studies and cohort studies.

Pattern of drug usage and their types :  

Defined simply, drug abuse is the general term used to describe the excessive and habitual use of some kind of substance, such as alcohol, marijuana or cocaine. These drugs typically lead to impaired judgement, loss of physical and emotional control and renders the person into a state of intoxication. Drug abuse is also known as Substance Abuse and is considered to be a medical problem that develops over time after prolonged use of drugs because they are harmful to the body.Previously, drug abuse generally referred to the abuse of illegal or hard to obtain drugs. But over the years, legal drugs, prescription drugs, alcohol and tobacco have become the leading causes of drug abuse.
When someone is an addict, the dependence on the drug is psychological and physical. It is an illness than is not within the control of the individual. Whereas when someone is abusing drugs, it's a habit that they continue even though their actions begin to negatively impact their lives and their ability to function normally. Drug addiction or dependency often begins with drug abuse. It is possible and likely that continued drug abuse will eventually evolve and develop into an addiction, especially if the abuse begins at a young age.There are many indicators of drug addiction. Obviously, the signs may differ from drug to drug as well as being unique with each person. However, there are several routine pieces of evidence:The drug becomes the main focus. Work, relationships and school will suffer. Financial problems develop and the addict continues to spend money on the drugIncreased use of the amount of the drug as well as using more frequently, often daily or several times in a day;

keeping a stash of the drug to make sure you have it at all times without waiting.Doing illegal things that you wouldn’t normally do in order to buy drugs. This might be stealing, prostitution or selling items that don’t belong to you.Spending all your time buying drugs, using drugs or recovering from the drug use.Feeling violent, argumentive and angry, especially when drug use is stopped.Experiencing withdrawal symptoms when attempting to stop drug use

• Almost three quarters of patients reported having previously attempted to cease their drug use. Of these, 11% had attempted to cease drug use once, while the majority (75%) had made several attempts and had done so a median of two times (range 1–10). There was no difference between the IDUs and DUs in terms of number of attempts to cease drug use.
• Of the 146 patients who had attempted to cease drug use and received help, 36% received help from their spouse, 25% from a sibling, 19% from a friend and 18% from a parent. Twenty patients (12%) reported receiving no help or support during their attempts to cease drug use.

Regards,

Elsa

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