Drug Abuse
Introduction
Due to the change in
world’s social and economic pattern with so much of
stressors and so less time for each other and even for
oneself to get relaxed, there is a hug scope for the
immature population to go for unnatural and
short-lived pleasures which although might pose severe
threat to one’s own health and well being and even to
life. Hence late teenagers and people in early
twenties are those who are most prone to it as they
both have reason and accessibility for the same.
Definitions
Drug abuse refers to
self or peer medication of a drug in any amount or in
any manner that cannot be medically or socially
justified for its use. Drug addiction means the
compulsive use of a drug, procuring it to take
precedence over other activities. Drug habituation
means less intense craving of the drug.
Problem statement
According to NIDA
(national institute on drug abuse) the Monitoring the
Future survey that is studying the trends since many
years shows that there has been significantly
decreased consumption of all the types of drugs except
the inhalants. Although there has been decreasing
trends but they are not at all satisfying as there are
still a large number of teenagers specially the 8th
graders who tend to get involved into this.
The problem with
these types of drug is both direct and indirect. The
direct effect of these drugs is for e.g. addiction,
insomnia, hyper somnolence, increased reaction time
and so on and so forth. But the indirect ones are
equally dangerous for e.g. easy prey to AIDS,
Hepatitis B & C and other infectious diseases.
Cause of the
problem, why abuse?
The root cause of the
problem are manifold but the main causes are the
teenagers with a history of drug abuse in the family,
single parent family, economically or socially
deprived children and surprisingly teenagers of
Hispanic origin.
Types
There are many
different types of drug abuse. These have
traditionally been divided based on the action on the
brain, chemical salt or the purpose for which it is
used medically or socially. Some of these are:
a) Nicotine used in
cigarette
One of most heavily
used and the most damaging of the drugs. It damages
not only the lungs and immunity but also the whole
body. Known to be implicated in the causation on lung,
ovarian, skin and certain other cancers.
b) Cocaine
Known to have
damaging effects on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular
systems.
c) LSD
Causes hypertension,
tachycardia and insomnia. Also disturbs the control of
body temperature.
d) Marijuana
Has caused memory and
learning disabilities.
e) Methamphetamine
Insomnia, anorexia,
hyperactivity and psychosis are its major side
effects.
f) Pain medications
Can lead to
dependence and drug craving.
g) Club drugs & date
rape drugs
Causes decreased
muscle power and amnesia.
h) Steroids
In males causes
certain feminine changes and vice versa in males
besides causes overall retarded development.
Diagnosing drug
abuse
Although the
diagnosis of the abuse is not difficult at a
full-blown stage but the important features at an
early stage are the teenager becoming less social,
poor performance at school, anorexia, unusual sleep
pattern and weakness.
Problem solving
The main success lies
in convincing the patient two things: first that the
drug is not helping him or her in any way and secondly
the drug abuse can be given up in a joint effort.
Obviously that means managing the drug abuse needs
both medical and social treatment.
Ronit Khera |