Abstract: A method of treating addiction to a chemical, and products containing the chemical, is provided, which comprises administering to a human in need thereof, an effective amount of a pharmaceutical composition which comprises a sex steroid precursor. The chemical is one or more chemicals selected from the group consisting of nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, methadone, heroin, cocaine and subutex. The sex steroid precursor is selected from the group which comprises DHEA, DHEAS, analogues of DHEA, and analogues of DHEAS. A method of preparing a medicinally effective treatment for addiction to a chemical or to products containing the chemical is also disclosed, which includes synthetically producing or extracting a sex steroid precursor from a source where said sex steroid precursor was naturally produced in vivo, and combining an amount of the sex steroid precursor sufficient to effectively treat a human addiction to the chemical with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, excipient or agent.