Drug withdrawal
group of symptoms that occur upon the abrupt discontinuation or decrease in intake of medications or recreational drugs
Drug withdrawal, drug withdrawal syndrome, or substance withdrawal syndrome is the group of symptoms that occur upon the abrupt discontinuation or decrease in the intake of pharmaceutical or recreational drugs.
In order for the symptoms of withdrawal to occur, one must have first developed a form of drug dependence. This may occur as physical dependence, psychological dependence, or both. Drug dependence develops from consuming one or more substances over a period of time.
Dependence arises in a dose-dependent manner and produces withdrawal symptoms that vary with the type of drug that is consumed. For example, prolonged use of an antidepressant medication is likely to cause a rather different reaction when discontinued compared to discontinuation of an opioid, such as heroin. Withdrawal symptoms from opioids include joint, bone and muscle pain, anxiety, cold sweats, increased heart rate and blood pressure, dilated pupils, vomiting, and diarrhea. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms include irritability, fatigue, shaking, sweating, and nausea. Withdrawal from nicotine can cause irritability, fatigue, insomnia, headache, and difficulty concentrating. Many prescription and legal non-prescription substances can also cause withdrawal symptoms when individuals stop consuming them, even if they were taken as directed by a physician.
“Drug withdrawal” enters the record as group of symptoms that occur upon the abrupt discontinuation or decrease in intake of medications or recreational drugs. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Drug, withdrawal and group can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q498902. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Drug withdrawal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.