in the clinic occasionally inspire insights that help solve the team's case. A significant plot element is House's use of Vicodin to manage pain, caused by an infarction in the quadriceps muscle of his right leg five years before the show's first season, which also forces him to use a cane. In the first-season 11th episode "Detox", House admits he is addicted to Vicodin but says he does not have a problem because the pills "let me do my job, and they take away my pain". His addiction has led his colleagues Cuddy and Dr. James Wilson to encourage him to go to drug rehabilitation several times. When he has no access to Vicodin or experiences unusually intense pain, he occasionally self-medicates with other narcotic analgesics such as morphine, oxycodone, and methadone. House also frequently drinks liquor when he is not on medical duty and classifies himself as a "big drinker". Toward the end of season five, House begins to hallucinate; after eliminating other possible diagnoses, Wilson and he determine that his Vicodin addiction is the most likely cause. House goes into denial about this for a brief time, but at the close of the season finale, he commits himself to Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital. In the following season's debut episode, House leaves Mayfield with his addiction under control. However, about a year and a half later, in season seven's 15th episode, "Bombshells", House reacts to the news that Cuddy possibly has kidney cancer by taking Vicodin, and he returns to his addiction. Cast and characters Main characters Throughout Houses run, six of the main actors have received star billing. All of them play doctors who work at the fictional Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), the title character, was educated at Johns Hopkins University and heads the Department of Diagnostic Medicine. House describes himself as "a board-certified diagnostician with a double specialty of infectious disease and nephrology". Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), House's one true friend, is the head of the Department of Oncology. Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), an endocrinologist, is House's boss, as she is the hospital's dean of medicine and chief administrator. House has a complex relationship with Cuddy, and their interactions often involve a high degree of innuendo and sexual tension. In the sixth episode of season five, "Joy", they kiss for the first time. Their physical relationship does not