Event Abstract Back to Event Physical addiction occurs when the effects of the consumed substance rapidly decreases for a time after its consumption was stopped. Marie-Claire Cammaerts1* 1 retired from the university of brussels, Belgium Abstract Invertebrates are nowadays often used as biological models. Using ants as models, we have examined the effects of 21 substances, i.e. 16 drugs, a food additive and 4 sweeteners. Among the 16 studied drugs, 11 ones appeared to induce no addiction, while 5 ones induced obvious physical addiction. Each time some addiction was revealed, the decrease of the effects of the drug after its consumption was stopped was rapid, at least during a given time period. On the contrary, the effects of the drugs leading to no addiction always decreased slowly, regularly (sometimes linearly) in the course of time, after the drug consumption was stopped. The essential cause of physical addiction to a drug is thus a rapid decrease of its affects after the end of its consumption. This rapid decrease, even if short lasting, is perceived by the organism which then wants to consume again the drug. To prevent humans’ dependence on a drug, it should be important firstly to know that addiction may occur and secondly to precise, in the running time, the exact time period during which such an addiction could appear, i.e. the time period during which the effects of the drug decrease rapidly. Caring of patients during that critical time period may help avoiding addiction. Defining that critical time period could be done by experimenting on biological models; ants were proved to be such excellent models. The present paper shows the decrease of the effects of 11 drugs which lead to no addiction, as well as the decrease of the effects of 5 drugs (cocaine, nicotine, morphine, alprazolam, paroxetine) which lead to addiction. The critical time period of the latter drugs are each time defined. Readers and practitioners may be interested to some of these results. For example, they may be interested in knowing the critical time period for nicotine. They should also be advised about a difference between fluoxetine (the previously most consumed antidepressant) and paroxetine (the nowadays most consumed one). The former is very toxic (and is hence less used nowadays) but it leads to no addiction, the latter is less toxic (and is thus presently largely used) but it leads to addiction (as well as to some habituation). Humans become thus inclined to go on consuming paroxetine and even to increase their consumed amount. References I have not yet written my references. They will be written in the full paper Keywords: Addiction, Analgesics, Antidepressants, Ants, anxiolytics, alkaloid drugs. Conference: Academy of Aphasia 55th Annual Meeting , Baltimore, United States, 5 Nov - 7 Nov, 2017. Presentation Type: symposium Topic: General Submission Citation: Cammaerts M (2019). Physical addiction occurs when the effects of the consumed substance rapidly decreases for a time after its consumption was stopped.. Conference Abstract: Academy of Aphasia 55th Annual Meeting . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2017.223.00002 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 30 Apr 2017; Published Online: 25 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Dr. Marie-Claire Cammaerts, retired from the university of brussels, Bruxelles, Belgium, mtricot@ulb.ac.be Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Marie-Claire Cammaerts Google Marie-Claire Cammaerts Google Scholar Marie-Claire Cammaerts PubMed Marie-Claire Cammaerts Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.