Journal of Addiction and DependenceJournal of Addiction and DependenceJournal of Addiction and DependenceJournal of Addiction and Dependence2471-061XOmmega Online PublishersNew Jersey, USA101110.15436/2471-061X-16-028Research ArticlePhysician Understanding and Treatment of Addiction: Have ‘Pseudoaddiction’ and ‘Self-medication’ led us astray?Physician Understanding and Treatment of Addiction: Have ‘Pseudoaddiction’ and ‘Self-medication’ led us astray?Chambers, R Andrew IU Neuroscience Center Indiana University School of Medicine Indianapolis USA Center for Health Policy Richard M Fairbanks School of Public Health Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis IUPUI Editor* E-mail: robchamb@iupui.edu
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
20161608201623JAD-16-PERS-1011/02809072016090820162016Creative Commons Attribution LicenseThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. nbsp emsp emsp U S healthcare and psychiatry in particular lack trained professional workforce physical infrastructure and financial support via insurance coverage needed to adequately support addiction treatment Concepts of lsquo pseudoaddiction rsquo and lsquo self-medication rsquo influential among physicians who treat pain and or mental illness frame drug use as being therapeutically beneficial which is different from and even opposite to how drug use is understood in the disease model of addiction Over-emphasis on the closely-related concepts of lsquo Pseudoaddiction rsquo and lsquo self-medication rsquo especially in regard to patients who suffer addiction at high rates may have contributed to a medical- psychiatric culture that has been slow to taking clinical responsibility for diagnosing preventing and treating addiction as a disease of major public health importance 10