World Congress on
Advances in Addiction Science and Medicine

Narcotics refers to opium derivatives, and their semi-synthetic substitutes.It is an addictive drug affecting mood or behaviour. This drug which induces drowsiness, insensibility,  and relieves pain. Depressants can produce depression, chronic fatigue, breathing difficulties, sexual problems and sleep problems. Stimulants, sometimes called “uppers,” temporarily increase alertness and energy. A hallucinogen is a psychoactive agent which can cause hallucinations, perceptual anomalies, and other substantial subjective changes in thoughts, emotion, and consciousness. Anabolic steroids are synthetic variations of the male sex hormone testosterone.

Distress, Mental illness, Low self-esteem, Poverty, Relationship problems, Loss of loved one, Chronic pain or medical conditions, Peer pressure, to feel good, Legality(for example the alcohol and nicotine are legal drugs), Inadequate parental supervision and monitoring,shortage of communication and interaction between parents and kids, family dispute.

Addiction is an insidious disease. Your recovery process begins with you initiating professional treatment.Once you have fully committed yourself to the treatment of your addiction, you are in the second stage of recovery,  known as early abstinence. During the early abstinence stage, your trained addiction counselor will begin to teach you the coping skills needed to lead a clear lifestyle.After 90 days of continual abstinence from drugs or alcohol, you move to the third stage of recovery maintaining abstinence. If you are in a residential treatment facility, now is the time you move to the outpatient counseling phase of your recovery program.Once you’ve remained clean and clear headed for approximately five years, you enter the fourth and final stage of recovery advanced recovery. At this point, you take all of the tools and skills you learned throughout your counseling and put them to use living a satisfying and fulfilling substance-free life.

Deaths, illnesses and disabilities, Weaken the immune system, increasing susceptibility to infections, Cause nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

Drug rehabilitation is the mental therapeutic treatment for addiction on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and illegal drugs. No single treatment is right for everyone. Counseling and other behavioral therapies are the most commonly used forms of treatment. Treatment should address other possible mental disorders.

This is a the collaboration where people live together as a form of therapy. Such environments are drug free and highly structured. Within such a community the individual can feel safe to explore new surviving mechanisms and learn to cooperate with other people. Therapeutic communities (TCs) are a common form of long-term residential treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs)Overall, studies find that therapeutic community (TC) participants show improvements in substance abuse, criminal behavior, and mental health symptoms.

Self help is the act of helping or ameliorate without depending onothers. For many people it involves joining a fellowship of people who are dealing with a similar problem. These groups do not rely on professional guidance but instead the members support each other. Examples of self help treatments would include: 12 Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous are the most well known of all the self help groups. Self Management and Recovery Training (SMART) which aims to make use of the latest scientific research. Rational Recovery emphasizes the need for each individual to take charge of their own life. This approach does not promote support group attendance because it may reinforce the idea that the individual is an addict. There are many books that claim to help people give up their addiction without any formal treatment or help from recovery groups.

Social support can be a very robust and favourable force in the recovery process. The benefits of social support are many. a sense of belongingness and inclusion, a sense of safety and security, reduced stress, decreased isolation and loneliness, an enhanced sense of meaning and purpose, hope and optimism about the future, the opportunity to escape the narrow world of one's own concerns social support can counteract shame, isolation and secrecy.Providing valuable information, Providing necessary or desirable resources, Providing emotional support.

Impulsivity is said to be one of the most common traits among addicts. A compulsion is the irresistible urge to do something. A large number of addicts place a high value on nonconformity and pride themselves on being different than others. Low self-esteem is something that affects far more people than you may realise. Again, we come back to the inability to delay gratification, People who are antisocial stemming from nonconformity, anxiety, Lying and deceit, Changes in normal behavior, Continuation despite negative consequences.

Drug addiction is a pathological condition. Drug is a substance that alters the normal body function resulting in psychological or behavioural change. Drug abuse is an increasingly common occurrence. Tobacco/nicotine is the most abused drugs in the world. Now a days   Research is showing that women are affected worse by alcohol than men. Prescription drugs are abused in nearly every country in the world. Opiates, stimulants, and depressants are the most common types. Cocaine is made in South American countries and is highly addictive. Crack is made from Cocaine, the effects are similar, but crack is cheaper and is said to be more addicting. Crack is heavily abused in the United States. 

Physical warnings: Bloodshot or glazed eyes, Dilated or constricted pupils, Abrupt weight changes, Bruises, infections or other physical signs at the drug’s entrance site on the body. Changes in attitude/personality.

Behavioural warnings: idleness, low spirits, Sudden changes in a social network, Financial problems, Involvement in criminal activity.

The first stage of  drug experimentation is defined as the use of alcohol or illicit/mood altering drugs at any time for experimentation. The second stage Social drug use is the use of any drug or combination of drugs in social situations, or for social reasons. The third stage Examples of problem use or risky use of drugs and or alcohol include binge drinking and drug abuse. Finally As a result of this disease, addicted people are unable to control their use of substances despite the negative consequences that occur as a result.

After the recovery we can see the differences in Dizziness, Managing anger, Changes in the behaviour and the physical health, Drowsiness, Slurred speech, Lack of coordination, Irritability, anxiety, Changes in heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature,  distaste or vomiting with weight loss, Impaired judgment.

The Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST) was flourish in 1982 and is still an magnificent screening tool. Regular screenings in primary care and other health care settings enables earlier identification of mental health and substance use disorders, which translates into earlier care. Screenings should be provided to people of all ages, even the young and the elderly. Some of the tools include  Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test(AUDIT), Drug Screening Questionnaire(DSQ), Drug Abuse Screening Test(DAST) etc.

Food addiction is closely associated with eating disorders, including obesity, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. Consuming food triggers chemicals in the brain, such as dopamine, that act as a reward and give pleasurable sensations to the individual. These chemicals can also act as a release from emotional distress. It is estimated that around 35 percent of adults in the United States are obese. However, people who are obese equate to only about one third of those with a food addiction, even though food addiction is sometimes associated with weight gain.

Prescription medication is typically given to those who suffer from conditions such as chronic pain. Prescription drug abuse and addiction is one of the most poorly recognized types of chemical dependency, particularly in women. A prescription drug is any medicine regulated by law to require a doctor’s prescription before it can be obtained. Prescription drugs generally work by either suppressing or promoting chemical reactions in the brain.

Gambling addiction—also known as pathological gambling, compulsive gambling or gambling disorder—is an impulse-control disorder. If you’re a compulsive gambler, you can’t control the impulse to gamble, even when it has negative consequences for you or your loved ones. Gambling addiction is sometimes referred to as a "hidden illness" because there are no obvious physical signs or symptoms like there are in drug or alcohol addiction. A gambling addiction or problem is often associated with other behaviour or mood disorders. Many problem gamblers also suffer with substance abuse issues, unmanaged ADHD, stress, depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder.

There are two major types of video games and therefore two major types of video game addictions. Standard video games are generally designed to be played by a single player.The other type of video game addiction is associated with online multiplayer games. These games are played online with other people and are especially addictive because they generally have no ending. Unlike with substance abuse, the biological aspect of video game addiction is uncertain. "Research suggests gambling elevates dopamine," Young says, and gaming is in the same category. But there's more to addiction than brain chemistry.

Experts have found a correlation between increased social media usage and depression and anxiety, especially in teens. Social media has become so much a part of our culture that most people can hardly imagine life without sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Are young people equipped to navigate a world where increasingly complex algorithms are designed to keep them clicking? Recent studies show that many teens check their social media more than 100 times a day. For some young people, the use of social media is so extreme it is negatively impacting their lives. Their relationships, academics, mental and physical health are suffering they’re addicted