Drug tolerance

Drug tolerance occurs when a subject's reaction to a drug (such as a painkiller or intoxicant) decreases so that larger doses are required to achieve the same effect. In addictedpatients, the resulting pattern of uncontrolled escalating doses may lead to drug overdose.

Tolerance may be related to the familiarity of "drug onset cues". The body is conditioned to respond to environmental cues such as the sight of a needle, and actually produces the beginnings of physiological responses before the drug is introduced. If there is no actual drug that follows, or if the dose is too small to produce the expected effect, it can trigger intense cravings in the addict. This may explain why "just one drink", or even the sight or presence of familiar alcohol cues, can cause a relapse in a recovering alcoholic.

Tachyphylaxisis a medical term referring to the rapid development of drug tolerance.

See also:

• desensitization
• physiological tolerance
• physical dependence
• Mithridatization

In a different context, drug tolerance can refer to the lenient policies of a government or organization toward drugs that are considered illegal in other areas. For example, the distribution of marijuanahas been legal in the Netherlandssince the early 1970s, and the state of Californiacontinues to test the legality of its medical marijuanalaws.

Drug intolerance is another social issue. Many law enforcement and civic agencies (such as schools and scouting groups) advocate a zero tolerance policytowards drugs, meaning that any infraction of existing laws and regulations will be punished, no matter how small.fr:Accoutumance ja:?? (???)

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug+tolerance Wikipedia article Drug tolerance.