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Is coffee really addictive?
The addictive power of caffeine both biologically and psychologically accounts for the passion behind the question to the left. Nobody asks that about decaffeinated coffee. What's more, coffee drinkers volunteer to continue their addiction, coming back for cup after cup.
As if there were not already enough disagreement within the great coffee debate, we cannot leave a discussion of the effects of coffee on health without mentioning dependence and addiction. ‘Addiction', to be technical for a moment, is defined as a strong dependence on a drug characterized by severe withdrawal symptoms, increased tolerance to a given dose (or the need for more and more of the substance), and the ‘drive' to consume the substance regardless of an individual's situation or environment.
Most psychiatrists do not feel that caffeine causes classical addiction, although withdrawal symptoms lasting a day or two may occur within ‘a small subset of individuals'. What's more interesting is that at lower doses (one to three cups of coffee a day), caffeine has no demonstrable effect on the area of the brain involved with addiction, dependence and reward, thus acting in a different manner from classically addictive substances such as amphetamines, cocaine, morphine or nicotine. In fact it would take around seven cups of coffee drunk in rapid succession to trigger dopamine release within the nucleus accumbens region of the brain, which is believed to be the neurochemical basis of drug addiction.
However physical dependence upon caffeine has been clearly demonstrated in both human and animal studies, the most commonly occurring withdrawal symptoms being headache and fatigue. Other symptoms can include work impairment, mood changes and even flu-like symptoms with 24 hours of the last cup. These symptoms may last from two days to over a week, the incidence and severity of the withdrawal symptoms naturally increasing with previous levels of caffeine intake.
There is even some evidence suggesting that caffeine withdrawal might disrupt academic performance or complex decision-making skills. However as with all drugs, dependence and withdrawal symptoms may vary considerably between individuals. Thus caffeine may be physically addictive but rarely does it appear to be psychologically addictive.
Perhaps no other recreational drug has had the positive impact that coffee has had upon our way of life and civilisation. Unlike other recreational drugs like alcohol, caffeine enhances rather than diminishes professional and social performance, and in contrast to other stimulants like amphetamines or cocaine, it is relatively inexpensive, freely available, is not strongly addictive and is nowhere near as neurotoxic.
It is perhaps reasonable to argue that our society has become economically, socially and physiologically dependent upon the blackened bean, as few people abstain from coffee completely. Far fewer still consume no caffeinated beverages or foods.
Coffee has overcome religious and trade disputes to become the global stimulant of choice, and even in societies where coffee consumption is relatively uncommon, other caffeine-rich plants such as tea, mate, kola nuts or cocoa are consumed. Thus society and its technologies have expanded with the use and prevalence of caffeine, as though humankind had developed a symbiotic relationship with this most stimulating of substances.
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