title: A mathematical model of habituation and addiction.
abstract: A model describing changes in the frequency of drug use for an individual is presented. It is shown that the model predicts the evolution of a large number of long-time users who will exhibit behavior similar to heat flow, with the percentage of users per unit frequency analogous to temperature. Data from the NIDA 1985 Household Survey which suggest such behavior among users are presented, and they are shown to be consistent with a principle of increasing entropy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park 20742.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Collier
mesh_terms: D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*