Drugs of Physical Harm in Pregnancy: Nature Vs Nurture-A Silent Battle
Sunil Kumar Pandey and Deepanjana Dass
Drug misuse is one of the major social, legal, and public-health challenges in the modern world (Nutt et al., 2007). Human drug addiction are chronically relapsing disorders characterised by compulsive drug use, an ability to limit the intake of drugs and emergence of a withdrawal syndrome during cessation of drug use (Gupta et al., 2007).
WHO has defined substance misuse as- ‘A state, psychic and sometimes physical, resulting from the interaction between a living organism and a drug, characterised by behavioural and other responses that always include a compulsion to take a drug on a continuous basis in order to experience its psychic effects, and sometimes to avoid the discomfort of its absence’. Tolerance may or may not be present (Multiagency guidelines for Southend, Essex and Thurrock, 2006).
