Although House's crankiness is commonly misattributed to the chronic pain in his leg, both Stacy and Cuddy have said that he was the same before the infarction. To handle the chronic pain in his leg, House takes Vicodin every day, and as a result has developed an addiction to the drug. He refuses to admit that he has an addiction ("I do not have a pain management problem, I have a pain problem"). However, after winning a bet from Cuddy by not taking the drug for a week, he concedes that he has an addiction, but says that it is not a problem because it does not interfere with his work or life. In the 2009 season House goes through detox and his addiction goes into remission, so to speak. However, it does seem that House may have gotten over his addiction in the season 6 premiere. "House" creator David Shore told the "Seattle Times" in 2006 that Vicodin is "becoming less and less useful a tool for dealing with his pain, and it's something writers are going to continue to deal with, continue to explore".