Providing a warm and non-judgmental medical team is key. Also, incentive payments to trial participants may be incorporated into study protocol. If clinicians are going to provide care for IDUs, they must first accept their life style, which for most IDUs is not abstinence. Whether individuals are using drugs intravenously or not, they can still receive life-prolonging treatments. Understanding Addiction Tolerance and dependence are two specific characteristics of drug addiction.
Addiction occurs when a substance is required to maintain basic functioning.
The compulsive, habitual, repeated use of a substance is continued in spite of harmful consequences, which the person involved recognizes fully. In other words, addicts know they're doing something which is self-destructive. Doctors must realize that addiction is something that the addicted individual cannot simply stop. The drug users' awareness of doing something destructive, and their perception of their ability to stop are clearly clouded by denial and avoidance. The notion of repetitive, continued self destructive behavior, even in the face of adverse consequences, is important to the understanding of addiction.