Addictive Potentials of Various Drugs

[Jasim]

I thought I might share some of this information. I found it rather interesting.

Adapted as a secondary source from Psychopharmacology: Drugs, The Brain, and Behavior - Jerrold S. Meyer & Linda F. Quenzer
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(Around 1994) two leading addiction experts rated various substances for their abuse potential in five categories:
(1) presence and severity of withdrawal symptoms;
(2) strength of the drug's reinforcing effects based on human and animal studies;
(3) degree of tolerance produced by the drug;
(4) degree of dependence produced by the drug based on difficulty quitting, relapse rates, and the percentage of users who become dependent; and
(5) degree of intoxication produced by the drug.


Substance Withdrawal Reinforcement Tolerance Dependence Intoxication
Henningfield ratings
Nicotine 3 4 2 1 5
Heroin 2 2 1 2 2
Cocaine 4 1 4 3 3
Alcohol 1 3 3 4 1
Caffeine 5 6 5 5 6
Marijuana 6 5 6 6 4
Benowitz ratings
Nicotine 3.5 4 4 1 6
Heroin 2 2 2 2 2
Cocaine 3.5 1 1 3 3
Alcohol 1 3 4 4 1
Caffeine 5 5 3 5 5
Marijuana 6 6 5 6 4

Source: Hilts, 1994.
(Sorry for the formatting. Here's a word table of this: Addictive Potentials Table.docx)

Click to see a better view of the table:
Addiction Potential Table.JPG

** 1 being most serious and 6 being least serious.
Averaging across all categories gives the least problematic substances as marijuana (average of 5.4) and caffeine (5.0), with the most problematic being heroin (1.9), followed by alcohol (2.5), cocaine (2.65), and nicotine (3.35). **

The ratings were made by Dr. Jack Henningfield, formerly Chief of Clinical Pharmacology at the Addiction Research Center of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and Dr. Neil Benowitz, a prominent addiction researcher at the University of California at San Francisco.


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In general I didn't find it all that surprising. Interesting that marijuana is considered less problematic overall than even caffeine. And that alcohol is more problematic that cocaine.

I would like to see similar ratings for other types of drugs. I would also like to see something similar for health effects.

I couldn't find the primary source for this.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Interesting table of research.