History/Background Opioids have been used for thousands of years for pain treatment. Papyrus records from the ancient Egyptians report the use of opium, within the opioid family for pain relief. The opium poppy was grown as early as 3400 BC in Mesopotamia. “Opium” refers to a combination of alkaloids from...

Narcan, commonly known as naloxone, is a medical prescription administered to revive opioids overdose (Kleber et al., 2012). According to studies by the Centers for Disease Control, Narcan has been used to revive more than ten thousand overdoses between 1996 and 2010 (Stranf et al., 2008). However, while the medics...

For decades, since the dangers of tobacco use have become widely accepted, people who have been addicted to smoking tobacco have tried an assortment of methods to quit. Like any addiction, giving up nicotine, especially after using it for long periods of time, can be extremely challenging and often requires...

There has been a long-term debate regarding the association of addiction as a brain disease. Most scientists acknowledge that addiction is a brain disease; however, there are many studies still taking place to disprove this belief. There is no arguing that addictive drugs directly changes the brain, but it can...

Gambling, normally classified as a leisure activity, is not as innocuous as the term “leisure” suggests: when gambling shifts from the status of a hobby to the status of an addiction, this bears clear effects on the addicted individual’s existence and quality of life. Addiction is always a destructive habit,...