Addiction treatment/Relapse risk

Patent Pending A relapse or recidivism is a recurrence of a past (typically medical) condition. For example, MS or malaria often exhibit peaks of activity and sometimes long periods of dormancy. Relapse, in relation to drug misuse, is resuming the use of a drug or a chemical substance after one or more periods of abstinence. The term is a landmark feature of both substance dependence and substance abuse, which are learned behaviors, and is maintained by neuronal adaptations that mediate learning and processing of various motivational stimuli.