Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 5, 1994 TAG: 9410050108
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post NOTE: above
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Roland R. Griffiths and colleagues at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have authored a study, written about in today'sWednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, that describes ``caffeine dependence syndrome.''
Caffeine's ability to create a physiological dependence has been known for some time. For regular caffeine users - and that includes 80 percent of adult Americans - even a day without caffeine can lead to headache, lethargy and depression, as the same group of researchers found in an earlier study. The new research puts those physical symptoms in the broader context of the framework used by the American Psychiatric Association for diagnosing substance dependence.
Along with physical withdrawal symptoms, the researchers used three other criteria for dependence: persistent desire, dose tolerance, and unsuccessful efforts to control use - in some cases, despite recurrent physical problems that might be made worse by caffeine use.
Of the 27 people in the study (all of whom identified themselves as dependent on caffeine), 94 percent experienced withdrawal when taken off caffeine, and the same percentage continued to use it despite physical or psychological problems that they associated with it. Eighty-one percent had been unsuccessful in efforts to cut down.
Griffiths, a behavioral pharmacologist, said his work in no way constitutes an attack on coffee or other caffeine-containing beverages. ``This paper doesn't say that you should stop caffeine'' if it doesn't appear to be causing problems, he said. The researchers suggested further study to establish the prevalence of the condition and concluded that ``further characterization of the dependence syndrome of the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world may also serve as a useful model for understanding the dependence syndromes of other drugs.''
The study raises broader issues about federal regulation. The Food and Drug Administration is considering regulating tobacco products based on the addictive nature of nicotine. Opponents of regulation have tried to show parallels between tobacco and other widely-used substances, such as caffeine.
FDA officials and medical experts have objected to that comparison and continued to do so in light of the new study. Jack E. Henningfield, a scientist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, called caffeine dependence ``a benign drug addiction'' and said he disagreed with the logic that says ``if you regulate nicotine, you have to regulate caffeine - it's two different animals.''
FDA spokesman Jim O'Hara said, ``The FDA has regulated caffeine as both a food and a drug for many years.'' He added that the FDA has the power to restrict levels of caffeine that might be ``ordinarily injurious to health,'' a line that even a double espresso does not cross.
by CNB