Drug naïvety is the physiological state of non-

habituation Habituation is a form of non-associative learning in which an innate (non-reinforced) response to a stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged presentations of that stimulus. Responses that habituate include those that involve the intact org ...

or non- tolerance to either a specific drug or broader set of drugs related by pharmacological criteria. The term applies to the administration of

psychotropics A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance, that changes functions of the nervous system, and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition or behavior. T ...

in contexts ranging from the professional medical treatment of

patients A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health c ...

to the non-medical

abuse Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

of any drug, as well as the veterinarian. In addition to not being habituated, a drug-naïve person may have never received a particular drug. The same dose could be lethal for a drug-naïve person while having little effect on a heavily habituated person. In a medical context drug-naïvete is important considering medication dosage (pain medication, anxiety medication, anaesthesia, etc.), as the level of habituation affects a patient's baseline resistance to the effects of such medications.

Notes and references

Psychoactive drugs {{Psychoactive-stub

See also

Notes and references