Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467, USA.
Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2013;9:29-59. doi: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032511-143041. Epub 2013 Jan 16.
According to the idea that addiction is a chronic relapsing disease, remission is at most a temporary state. Either addicts never stop using drugs, or if they do stop, remission is short lived. However, research on remission reveals a more complex picture. In national epidemiological surveys that recruited representative drug users, remission rates varied widely and were markedly different for legal and illegal drugs and for different racial/ethnic groups. For instance, the half-life for cocaine dependence was four years, but for alcohol dependence it was 16 years, and although most dependent cocaine users remitted before age 30, about 5% remained heavy cocaine users well into their forties. Although varied, the remission results were orderly. An exponential growth curve closely approximated the cumulative frequency of remitting for different drugs and different ethnic/racial groups. Thus, each year a constant proportion of those still addicted remitted, independent of the number of years since the onset of dependence.
根据成瘾是一种慢性复发性疾病的观点，缓解最多是暂时的状态。要么成瘾者从未停止使用毒品，要么如果他们停止使用，缓解期也很短暂。然而，缓解的研究揭示了一个更复杂的情况。在招募代表性吸毒者的全国性流行病学调查中，缓解率差异很大，非法和合法毒品以及不同种族/族裔群体之间的缓解率差异显著。例如，可卡因依赖的半衰期为四年，但酒精依赖的半衰期为十六年，虽然大多数依赖可卡因的使用者在 30 岁之前缓解，但仍有 5%的人在四十多岁时仍大量使用可卡因。尽管缓解的结果各不相同，但却是有序的。不同毒品和不同种族/族裔群体的缓解累积频率非常接近指数增长曲线。因此，每年都有一定比例的仍在成瘾的人缓解，与依赖开始的年限无关。
