Neurol. praxi. 2022;23(6):463-467 | DOI: 10.36290/neu.2022.001

Primary neurology healthcare and prescription drug addiction

MUDr. Petr Polidar

Neurologická klinika FN Olomouc

Meeting a patient using no medicaments regularly has become a curiosity in the 21^st century. Considering the increasing number of chronic diseases we become more and more aware with the phenomenon of polypragmasia, which may result in damaging the patient. With recent advances in new and multimodal drug development we may usually reduce the number of prescription drugs used by the patient. This method however demands enough time, which we don't have an abundance of. Even more so, discontinuation of some treatment options may be very poorly tolerated by a patient. The relatively new science of Addictology is a multidisciplinary field specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of addiction. It unites the knowledge of medical, psychological and social matter in pursuit of optimalizing the treatment proces of drug addiction. The most commonly abused prescription drugs include opioid and non-opioid analgetics, sedatives and non-benzodiazepine hypnotics. Other substances are less common. In the following text we assess the issue of prescription drug addiction itself followed by the summary of the most commonly abused drug classes with emphasis on the epidemiological situation in Czech Republic.

Keywords: addiction, wanting, craving, liking, adictology.

Received: October 7, 2021; Revised: January 30, 2022; Accepted: January 31, 2022; Prepublished online: January 31, 2022; Published: December 2, 2022  Show citation