[Emilio Romero (OP)]

If someone were to be given a drug without his knowledge, let’s say they administer it orally in different kinds of food and in different doses would the subject become addicted?
Probably the subject would, but would the addiction be different in any way? Stronger? Weaker? More easy to overcome once known by the subject?
Would the subject know what he craves for due to his addiction?
Thanks
Emilio

[lyner]

I guess he would just feel ill. If it were for the first time, he would have no idea why. The addict who is aware of addiction will notice the withdrawal symptoms earlier (learning from past experience) and this is bound to stoke up the effect.

This happened with Amphetamines in the sixties when many people were prescribed them and then couldn't get off them without a lot of hassle. In that case, the Doctor was part of the positive feedback loop by prescribing higher doses because the withdrawal symptoms were interpreted as a worsening of the original condition - so we increase the medication - and so on.

[joshuab]

Yeah some drugs and even alcohol are bound to that condition, they can't be withdrawed
all of a sudden, at some worse conditions they act in reverse process.
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[chris]

Someone I knew did work on addiction. He used rats as his test subjects and infused their nervous systems with heroin whenever they pressed a lever in the correct sequence. One day he showed me round his lab. We assume that his rats were unaware that they were taking part in an experiment, or that they were being given opiates, but they were extremely eager to take part in the tests each day!

The moment the door to their cage was opened they ran out, up my friend's arm and then jumped into the test apparatus to get started.

In other words, they may not have known what was responsible for producing the pleasant symptoms they experienced during the tests but they were aware of the situation in which it arose. This, in turn, motivated them to participate.

Another way of looking at this is the way some prostitutes are exploited. Pimps often addict their "charges" to opiates so that the women become reliant upon them for a supply of drugs to stave off withdrawal. This keeps them pliable and cooperative...nice.

Chris

[Mr. Scientist]

Someone I knew did work on addiction. He used rats as his test subjects and infused their nervous systems with heroin whenever they pressed a lever in the correct sequence. One day he showed me round his lab. We assume that his rats were unaware that they were taking part in an experiment, or that they were being given opiates, but they were extremely eager to take part in the tests each day!

The moment the door to their cage was opened they ran out, up my friend's arm and then jumped into the test apparatus to get started.

In other words, they may not have known what was responsible for producing the pleasant symptoms they experienced during the tests but they were aware of the situation in which it arose. This, in turn, motivated them to participate.

Another way of looking at this is the way some prostitutes are exploited. Pimps often addict their "charges" to opiates so that the women become reliant upon them for a supply of drugs to stave off withdrawal. This keeps them pliable and cooperative...nice.

Chris

Chris, you said

''they were aware of the situation in which it arose.''

Be very careful friend. Animals can be conditioned.

[glovesforfoxes]

Chris, you said

''they were aware of the situation in which it arose.''

Be very careful friend. Animals can be conditioned.

In this context, what's the difference?

[LeeE]

When talking about addiction you need to be careful about distinguishing between physical addiction and habitual addiction.

In physical addiction, the drug that's being taken artificially supplies a compound that is otherwise normally created by the body, with the result that the body stops producing the compound and then, when the drug is withdrawn, the body experiences a temporary deficiency of that compound until the body starts producing it again.  Not many drugs are physically addictive in this way though; Heroin is the archetypal example.

What is much more common are habitually addictive drugs, and with these there are no significant changes to the body's chemistry (other than those associated with the direct effects).  There are no physical withdrawal effects when ceasing to take these types of drugs but because the main point of taking them is to change your mental state and outlook, you're quite likely to suffer mental stress and psychosis if they're withdrawn.