Abstract
This analysis examines the relative prevalence of DSM/ICD generic criteria for substance dependence in nicotine vs other substance use. As part of the APA/NIMH DSM-IV field trials, two population-based samples received the WHO CIDI-SAM structured interview. The following prevalence rates are for each DSM-III-R/ICD-9 criteria among current users of tobacco (n=261) vs current users of alcohol (n=398), marijuana (n=180), cocaine (n=56) and opioids (n=37). Tobacco users were more likely to report tolerance (76% for nicotine vs 19-29% for other substances), withdrawal (57% vs 12-16%), greater consumption or duration of use than intended (64% vs 20-33%), strong desire or inability to stop/cut down/control (38% vs 10-23%) and compulsive use (54% vs 14-23%). Tobacco users were somewhat less likely to report spending much time obtaining, using or recovering from the substance (21% vs 21-30%). Tobacco users reported a similar prevalence of giving up activities to use substance (7% vs 4-14%), harm from substance use (64% vs 46-73%) and use despite known problems from the substance (51% vs 21-73%). Our results suggest that, despite recent interest in commonalities across dependencies, there are large and clinically significant differences in how dependence is manifested in nicotine vs other drug use.
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Hughes, J. Nicotine Dependence is Different From Other Drug Dependencies. Neuropsychopharmacol 11, 273 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1380165
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1380165