What is the difference between drug abuse and drug addiction?

I am witing something freelance and just wondering if anyone can give me an addequite difference between drug abuse and drug addiction.

The definition of an addict is: 1. To cause to become physiologically or psychologically dependent on a habit-forming substance
2. To occupy (oneself) with or involve (oneself) in something habitually or compulsively

Definition of drug abuse: he use of illegal drugs or the inappropriate use of legal drugs. The repeated use of drugs to produce pleasure, to alleviate stress, or to alter or avoid reality (or all three).


The use of a drug for a purpose other than that for which it is normally prescribed or recommended.


the habitual misuse of a chemical substance

They are very similar definitions. Almost the same.

Why are people either classified as a drug abuser or a drug addict? Drug abusers don't usually get the intese care an addict does. Remember, the definition for addic includes psychological addiction. not just physical.

When you are addicted, you are abusing them..so, not much difference

What is drug tolerance and how is it related to drug abuse and addiction? What is drug tolerance and how is it related to drug abuse and addiction?

It depends on the type of drug. I know little about the tolerance of most classes. I know that hallucinogens form little to no tolerance. I know a lot about how stimulants work because in my first-aide class they only really taught us about that type of drug for some reason. Stimulant tolerance works by depleting cells of neurotransmitters. for example these two brain cells, cell A and cell B, normally has a constant firing of neurotransmitters from cell A to cell B. When a stimulant like cocaine is introduced, cell A gets over stimulated and starts firing more neurotransmitters to cell B. Now both cell A and cell be are over stimulated, this causes that very fun rush that get you happy, energized, and in a lot of cases I've experienced, stupid. The tolerance develops because the cells are stimulated in another way. under normal conditions, when neurotransmitters are not use in the synapse (place between the cells), they are normally brought back into the cell in a process call "re uptake" (one word?). Now Stimulates stop this re uptake process and that means even more neurotransmitters for cell B but it also means that when normal conditions are reastablised, cell A has less neurotransmitters to fire causing a withdraw. You also need more of the stimulant to get the same effect, and it'll never be as good as the first time, which leads to tolerance, and as you get to depleted, you need the drug to feel normal, which leads to dependance.

How is drug abuse and Addiction different ?

This is homework for a class

**Drug Abuse---taking a psychoactive drug or performance enhancing drug for a non-therapeutic or non-medical effect---a negative judgment of the drug use

**Addiction--- an obsession, compulsion, or excessive physical dependence or psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction, crime, alcoholism, compulsive overeating, problem gambling, computer addiction, pornography, etc.


From the above definitions, I gather that drug abuse pertains to drugs and an addiction is the abuse of more than just drugs.

Im trying to find some information for a paper Im doing and I need a little help. Im trying to see if a person who is born addicted to drugs because of their mothers drug abuse while pregnant will be more incline to become an addict in adulthood. I keep trying diffrent wording in search engines and keep coming up empty handed.

That's actually a very interesting topic. I remember watching a video about crack babies in a psyc. course but can't remember the name! Did you try typing crack babies, prenatal addiction, addiction and genetic links, etc? It also depends on the search engine you're using, and whether you're looking for peer-reviewed articles and publications. Wish you luck.