ABSTRACT

In 1964, the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Addiction-Producing Drugs recommended substitution of the term “drug dependence” for the terms “drug addiction” and “drug habituation.” The WHO Scientific Group endorsed this recommendation. The methods described that for evaluating abuse liability of narcotic-like drugs are those employed at the Addiction Research Center in Lexington, Kentucky. The subjects are male prisoner volunteers in good physical condition with a long history of asocial behavior, including abuse of opiate-like drugs, and with a poor prognosis for recovery. The abstinence syndromes for the antagonists nalorphine, cyclazocine, and pentazocine are much milder than that of morphine, and in addition, are qualitatively different. The abuse potential of a drug often is influenced significantly by subtle characteristics other than physical and psychic dependence. Dependence can be induced readily in man with several different barbiturates and it has been observed in experimental alcoholic intoxication.