ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses some of the personality alterations seen in persons with drug dependence syndrome (DDS), persons with abnormal drug-seeking behavior, or illicit drug-oriented persons. If the medication is being used for pain control in a chronic pain patient, a physician familiar with various chronic pain conditions, including myofascial pain syndrome, should physically evaluate the patient. Tolerance, as it relates to persons with DDS, is markedly different from “tolerance” seen in chronic pain individuals who use opioids and/or opioid-containing analgesics for gainful and productive purposes. Tolerance, with respect to opioids and/or opioid-containing analgesics, means that certain side effects of the drug generally lessen with the passage of time. Tolerance to effects of a drug will develop at different rates to opioids and/or opioid-containing analgesics. The fastest tolerance with respect to opioids and/or opioid-containing analgesics develops to their euphoria-producing effects.
