Most first-time users do not become addicted, but many eventually lose the ability to control their use of drugs and become addicted. In this sense, drug addiction is similar to diabetes or hypertension. The analogy between drug addiction and diseases like hypertension or diabetes is appropriate because both conditions produce permanent anatomic and functional changes that put the patient at risk for health problems. Addictive drugs can produce changes in brain pathways that persist long after a person stops taking drugs and place the individual at high risk of relapse. Therefore, internists must think in terms of lifelong treatment of drug addiction.
Drug addiction is similar to diseases like hypertension, diabetes and asthma in other respects.
Like many chronic diseases, successful treatment requires behavioral change, and poor compliance is a constant threat. For example, naltrexone is an opioid antagonist that works centrally to reduce craving for alcohol and opioids. It markedly reduces recidivism among alcoholics and opioid addicts, but opioid addicts show poor compliance and alcoholics aren't much better. Treatments One way to successfully treat opioid addiction is methadone, which is a weak-acting opioid agonist. Methadone does not produce euphoria, but it blocks symptoms of opioid withdrawal and can be used in steadily reduced doses to help opioid addicts withdraw from drug use.