https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-025-02008-w
Regular Article
Order parameter of psychological and physiological drug addiction: a modeling approach
1
Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, 06269, Storrs, CT, USA
2
Physics Department, University of Connecticut, 179 Auditorium Road, 06269, Storrs, CT, USA
Received:
30
June
2025
Accepted:
1
October
2025
Published online:
13
October
2025
An epidemiological model for drug addiction that involves both psychological and physiological drug addicts is analyzed within the framework of synergetics. An analytical expression for the order parameter of the model is obtained and the amplitude equations underlying the drug addiction dynamics are derived. It is shown that the order parameter and its amplitude determine the initial surge of an epidemic triggered by a new drug. In particular, it is shown that the order parameter binds the groups of psychological and physiological addicted users together to a single entity such that changes in the size of one group predict how the other group changes in size. Two concepts that have been recently proposed within the synergetics framework, namely time-dependent eigenvalues and explained-variance scores are discussed as well and their usefulness for understanding the drug addiction dynamics of the model is demonstrated. In summary, it is shown that the order parameter approach together with its related concepts can provide additional insights into drug addiction dynamics that complement insights obtained from the classical state space approach.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
