Harm reduction—Priya
This over the counter drug testing strip let's people check their supply for Fentanyl before using.
Fentanyl test strips
This foundational factor involves using substances to cope with overwhelming emotions such as sadness, stress, or anxiety.
Emotional Coping/ Self medication
This powerful synthetic opioid, often mixed into other drugs unknowingly, as driven a spike in overdose deaths.
Fentanyl
Approach combining medications like methadone or buprenorphine with counselling for opioid use disorder.
Medication - assisted treatment (MAT)
This neurotransmitter surges when drugs of abuse are used, teaching the brain to repeat the behaviour.
Dopamine
This medication rapidly reverses opioid overdoses and is widely distributed to prevent deaths.
Naloxone
A person with a family history of substance use disorders may be at higher risk due to this inherited vulnerability.
Genetic Predisposition
Beyond illegal drugs, these two legal substances are also among the misused worldwide.
Alcohol and Nicotine/Tobacco
Term for a return to substance use after a period of abstinence .
Relapse
This term describes needing more and more of a substance overtime to get the same effect.
Tolerance
These supervised sites let people use pre- obtained drugs under medical supervision, reducing overdose deaths.
Supervised injection sites
Traumatic experiences—such as childhood abuse, neglect, or exposure to violence—can significantly increase the likelihood of developing addictive behaviours
What is Trauma or Adverse Childhood experiences (ACEs)
This class of drug,including Oxycontin, heavily prescribed for pain before the epidemic took hold.
Opioids(prescription)
Counselling style that helps a person explore and resolve ambivalence about changing substance use.
Motivational interviewing .
This uncomfortable physical and psychological state, brought on by stopping a substance, is a major driver of relapse.
Withdrawal
This harm reduction service reduces the spread of hepatitis and HIV among people who inject drugs.
Needle/Syringe exchange program
This social determinant of health includes poverty, unstable housing, and limited access to support systems, all of which can contribute to addiction.
What are socioeconomic factor?
Addictive behaviors are not only substance based; this everyday consumable is cited as capable of triggering similar reward responses.
Sugar
Underlying condition that, when treated alongside addiction, improves long-term recovery odds .
Mental health disorder/ trauma.
Repeated drug use physically rewires brain connections in this way, strengthening cravings overtime.
Neuroplasticity
This philosophy prioritizes reducing the negative consequences of drug use over requiring abstinence.
Harm Reduction
This brain‑based factor involves disruptions in reward pathways and neurotransmitters like dopamine, making some individuals more susceptible to compulsive substance use.
Neurobiological Factors/ Changes in the brain reward system?
This blood borne virus, along with HIV, has spiked among people who inject drugs and share needles.
Hepatitis (C)
Term for treatment backed by research and clinical outcomes, rather than willpower alone.
Evidence- based treatment
The brain region most associated with reward, motivation, and reinforcement in addiction.
Reward pathway/Mesolimbic system