Qfyilyi

I need an adjective which means roughly 'of a tendency to cause physical dependence' that can be applied to drugs. 'Addictive' or the like won't work because it doesn't distinguish between physical and psychological dependence. I need an adjective that relates specifically to the quality of a chemical substance to produce physical dependence.

I checked thesaurus.com, which cites Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus third edition. It did not offer many choices. The only alternatives it were had obsessive, enslaving or hooking and habit-forming, but these do not specifically relate to physical dependence.

Update: I have gotten some fantastic answers, and I appreciate the assistance, but they are not quite what I see. I need an adjective, rather than a noun or any other type of semantic unit. While I prefer the adjective to be a single word, it does not have to be, but I require an adjective for this context. The two of the prior responses have each been nouns or noun phrases.

The intended context is something along the lines of the following:

Drugs such as heroin are … , meaning that they demonstrate a high potential for physical dependence.

"Physically addictive" refers to substances that result in both addictive behavior and physical dependence. If that's the category you're looking for, it should work fine.

If the category you're looking for is all substances that create physical dependence, regardless of whether they create addictive behavior, I'm not aware of a concise phrase for it. You'll probably have to talk around it with a phrase like "physical dependence potential". If you find you'll be using it a lot, you could abbreviate it to PDP.

This can be described as the dependence potential of a substance, which can be used to distinguish between physical and psychological dependence.

For example:

Testing Drugs for Physical Dependence Potential and Abuse Liability, NIDA Research 1984

Drugs that cause physical dependence are said to be "drugs of abuse". Such drugs frequently lead to addiction and, more often than not, physical dependence.

"Addictive" is a commonly used adjective, as in "the five most addictive drugs are cocaine, heroin, alcohol, nicotine, and methamphetamine" 5 Most Addictive Drugs

Although it is possible to become physically dependent on a substance without being addicted, addiction is the usual pathway to dependence. Therefore, the most addictive drugs are usually the ones that result in physical dependence.

• An addictive drug is one that you cannot stop taking once you have started: tobacco is highly addictive.

When people use the term “dependence,” they are usually referring to a physical dependence on a substance. Dependence is characterized by the symptoms of tolerance and withdrawal.

Addiction is marked by a change in behavior caused by the biochemical changes in the brain after continued substance abuse. Substance use becomes the main priority of the addict, regardless of the harm they may cause to themselves or others. An addiction causes people to act irrationally when they don’t have the substance they are addicted to in their system. Addiction Center

Addiction encompasses both a mental and physical reliance on a given substance.

I can give you an adverb.

Drugs such as heroin are physiologically habituating, meaning that
they demonstrate a high potential for physical dependence.

physiological is an adjective,

Relating to the branch of biology that deals with the normal functions
of living organisms and their parts.

"physiological research on the causes of violent behaviour"

1.1 Relating to the way in which a living organism or bodily part functions. "slow down your body's physiological response to anger by breathing deeply"