Caffeine withdrawal in the process of being recognized as a mental disorder

Daily consumption of a single cup of coffee can get addicted to caffeine, and is not to drink can then cause headaches and difficulty concentrating, reveal the authors of a study that reviewed over 170 years of research on caffeine withdrawal.
Published in the "Psychopharmacology" review the results of this analysis led to the inclusion of caffeine withdrawal in the edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, considered the bible in this area, and the updating of the diagnosis in the International Classification of diseases and health problems of the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Caffeine is the most widely consumed stimulant in the world, it is not expensive and it can be obtained without difficulty, so that people can make a contribution rather easily," notes Roland Griffiths, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins Institute.

But when people do not have their usual dose, "they may have a variety of symptoms ranging from headache, fatigue through concentration difficulties. Some may even develop flu symptoms with nausea and pain muscle, "says the specialist.

Despite more than a century and a half of research on caffeine withdrawal, doctors and other health professionals have found no scientific basis for diagnosing the syndrome. Their goal was to validate the symptoms associated with the disease and to determine how often withdrawal caused such signs.

Of the 57 experimental studies and nine surveys caffeine withdrawal they analyzed, the researchers identified five groups of common symptoms: headache, fatigue, or drowsiness; anxious mood including depression and irritability, difficulty focus, flu-like symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and muscle pain.

In experimental studies, half of the patients suffered from headaches and 13% showed clinical signs of distress - a severe headache or other symptoms such as preventing them from working. The onset of symptoms occurred between 12 hours and 24 hours after cessation of caffeine, with a peak between one and two days, and for a period of 2 to 9 days.

In general, the incidence or severity of signs increased with the amount of daily coffee intake, but the withdrawal of even very low doses as a daily cup of coffee has also caused the onset of these symptoms.

According to the authors, the occurrence of these unpleasant symptoms unconsciously motivated caffeine intake. This is probably true for coffee lovers who particularly enjoy drinking a "little black" in the morning, after overnight abstinence.

However, caffeine withdrawal is possible. Simply do it very gradually, gradually replacing products containing caffeine decaffeinated products, advise the authors.