Substance abuse and substance addiction are two separate but overlapping conditions that can occur in people who misuse alcohol or a broad spectrum of medications and illegal drugs. In mental health terms, the single diagnosis used to account for both of these conditions is substance use disorder. Every year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration uses a nationwide effort called the National Survey on Drug Use and Health to roughly determine how many U.S. teenagers and adults qualify as substance abusers or substance addicts.

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