[Changes in the German psychiatric drug dependence definition]

Experience recorded in the psychiatric/psychotherapeutic sector with young persons dependent on drugs, with compulsive gamblers and, especially, with alcoholics, some of them in relatively early stages of the disease, has led to shifts in attitudes to the problem of addiction among German-speaking psychiatrists and thus to a shift in their understanding of the term addiction (in the sense of addictive illness). The concept of addiction was extended when the existence of nicotine dependence was recognized. Prevention of addiction is an urgent priority, and therapy must be instituted as soon as possible; these aims mean that addiction (dependence) must be clearly and objectively defined without reference to value-systems, but also comprehensively. The sign of addiction that is most important in pracice, as it is fairly specific and occurs at an early stage, is the phenomenon of loss of control.