Short answers, pulled from the story.
The year 2013 marked a pivotal shift in how doctors classify substance use disorders. The American Psychiatric Association merged two previous diagnoses, substance abuse and substance dependence, into a single category called substance use disorder within the DSM-5 manual.
A diagnosis of mild substance use disorder requires only two or three of these criteria to be present. Moderate cases involve four or five criteria, while severe cases are defined by six or more symptoms from eleven specific criteria.
In 2017 global estimates placed 271 million people aged fifteen and older as users of illicit drugs representing five point five percent of the adult population worldwide. Substance use disorders from illicit substances directly caused five hundred eighty-five thousand deaths globally that same year.
Five medications currently treat alcohol and opioid use disorders within the United States though none exist for cocaine or methamphetamine yet. Methadone and disulfiram help patients function comfortably without illicit substances by lessening withdrawal symptoms.
Scientists have investigated addiction vaccines since the early 2000s as a potential method to immunize against specific substances. These experimental treatments condition the immune system to attack molecules causing reactions in the brain thereby preventing addicts from realizing drug effects.