substance abuse

Also known as drug abuse, harmful use, chemical substance abuse, psychoactive substance abuse, abuse of substances, injecting drug use, injecting drug abuse

patterned use of a drug in which the user consumes the psychoactive/chemical substance substances in amounts or with methods which are harmful to themselves or others

Key facts

Other names: Drug misuse, drug abuse, substance use disorder, substance misuse disorder
Specialty: Psychiatry
Complications: Drug overdose
Frequency: 27 million
Deaths: 1,106,000 US residents (1968–2020)

via Wikipedia infobox

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

A person using an inhalant Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder. Differing definitions of drug misuse are used in public health, medical, and criminal justice contexts. In some cases, criminal or anti-social behavior occurs when some persons are under the influence of a drug, and may result in long-term personality changes in individuals. In addition to possible physical, social, and psychological harm, the use of some drugs may also lead to criminal penalties, although these vary widely depending on the local jurisdiction.

Lines of cocaine prepared for snorting. Contaminated currency such as banknotes might serve as a fomite of diseases like hepatitis C

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “substance abuse” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.