In this episode Dr Matt & Dr Mike discuss drug addiction and drug abuse with Psychiatrist Dr Kieran Kennedy.
It is a great discussion that covers the following points;
– What is drug addiction and drug abuse – what are the differences?
– How do you identify drug addiction?
– Is a drug addiction (e.g. heroin) the same as a behavioural addiction (e.g. gambling)?
– Do we understand the neurochemical mechanism/s underpinning drug addiction?
– What drugs are commonly abused?
– Do we know what determines whether someone becomes addicted to drugs (genetics, environment, psychosocial, etc.)?
– What are the treatments of drug addiction?
– What % of Australians have an alcohol and/or substance abuse problem?
– From your experience, is substance abuse an independent phenomenon or is it masking an underlying mental illness?
– Using alcohol as an example, what degree of substance use would categorise it being an addiction
– With the recent integration of caffeine into alcoholic drinks. Have you noticed a change in the use of alcohol in the population?
– Are the medications used to treat substance abuse different – depending on the drug abused – or are the MoA of these medications aimed to mitigate addiction, broadly?
– What advice would you give the listeners, if they had a friend or family member who they suspected had a drug addiction?
– What is withdrawal?

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