Drug addiction is not merely a simple occurrence, it is a disease. There is pathology to be considered, agents and modalities used in treatments, as well as follow- up monitoring. Drug therapy is a very specialized field and there are specific mechanisms that are used when treating any patient; just as there would be therapy during the recovery from any disease known in today’s medicine. Although drug addiction may not be considered by many to ‘qualify’ as a disease, the scientific evidence leaves no room for doubt in the fact that it does in fact fall into that classification.

Now, pathology is the study, as well as the diagnosis, or any potential disease. For decades, not only the use, but the uncontrollable dependence, upon substances has been a point of focus and concern for millions of people, particularly those of the medical professions. Drug addiction, of course is just that, an insuppressible desire, need, and even hunger, for a particular essence, that is generally mind- altering. This hunger is so pronounced that it eventually becomes an all- consuming task to simply lay hands on more of which ever drug. Additionally, a disease can be summed up as any abnormal condition that causes interference in vital physiological processes. It is then, inarguable that drug addiction is not a disease for it falls into those very parameters.

As far as treatment of the disease of drug addiction, there are several routes that the afflicted can peruse. Naturally, one of the greatest obstacles to overcome is none other than the symptoms of withdrawal. There are actually medications that can be prescribed that aid in suppressing these side- effects of addiction so that they may be overcome; these medications would also aid in re- establishing normal brain function and making relapses less likely. There are, too, various behavioral therapies, that when combined with medical therapy has shown to be most effective. Residential therapy is also an option; this would actually boil down into a community of similarly afflicted patients, in a strongly structured environment established solely for the purpose of overcoming addiction and curing the disease. Naturally pediatric and geriatric patients would receive the same, slightly more supervised and structured care because at these stages of life, are developing, or potentially destabilizing, at various degrees.

Depending upon the particular drug to which one is addicted, there will be varying mechanisms and toxicity levels involved in the drug therapy.  Combating opiates, for example, are going to require medications such as “Methadone, buprenorphine and, for some individuals, naltrexone,” while for an addiction of the alcohol, or even the tobacco variety are going to have differing tactics, (“NIDA InfoFacts: Treatment Approaches for Drug Addiction,” 2009). The same goes for pediatric patients, as well as geriatric patients, only their strength of drug addiction combating medications is most likely going to be lower as their bodies in general, and hearts in particular, are not going to be able to handle the same amount as say a young, health, average adult.

There are many diseases in the medical world today; from diabetes, to heart disease, from liver disease, to pretty much anything else. The reason why drug addiction is so worrisome, however, in some cases even more so than some of the previously mentioned diseases, is that there is no way to predict where, when, or who, it will strike. A baby can be addicted to cocaine, in the event that it’s mother was also in the same boat. So too could a 50 year old man be abusing any other drug. The main point to take away, however, is that while other diseases can generally be classified, narrowed down, or even cured, drug addiction disease will always be an issue because there are always going to be new drugs and they are going to continue to make their way into the most unsuspecting hands.