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Topic Research Guide & Advertisements
Substance abuse is highly associated with the word tolerance, which carried the medical meaning of the body's adaptation to a drug. A greater amount is required overtime, to achieve the initial effect, because the body gets used to or adapt to the amount of intake. For this reason, substance abuse came into being, the higher your tolerance goes, the more your drug of choice gets abused. Other definitions of drug abuse fall into four main categories:
There is a high rate of suicide in alcoholics and drug abusers. The reasons believed to cause the increased risk of suicide include the long-term abuse of alcohol and drugs, the physiological distortion of brain chemistry as well as the social withdrawal or isolation. Another factor is the acute intoxicating, and brain altering effects of the drugs, which can make suicide more likely to occur. Suicide is also very common in adolescent alcohol abusers, with 1 in 4 suicides in adolescents being related to alcohol abuse. In the USA approximately 30 percent of suicides are related to alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse is also associated with increased risks of committing criminal offenses, including child abuse, domestic violence, rapes, burglaries and assaults. Substance use disorder or Drug abuse, including alcohol and prescription drugs, can induce symptomatology which resembles mental illness. This can occur both in the intoxicated state, and also during the withdrawal state. In some cases these substance induced psychiatric disorders can persist long after detoxification, such as prolonged psychosis or depression, after amphetamine or cocaine abuse. Some of these drugs of choice whether illegal or prescription, are very dangerous to one's health or life. A protracted withdrawal syndrome, can also occur with symptoms persisting for months after cessation of use. Benzodiazepines are the most notable drug, for inducing prolonged withdrawal effects, with symptoms sometimes persisting for years after cessation of use. Abuse of hallucinogens can trigger delusional and other psychotic phenomena, long after cessation of use, and cannabis may trigger panic attacks during intoxication, and with use, it may cause a state similar to dysthymia. Severe anxiety and depression, are commonly induced by sustained alcohol abuse, which in most cases abates with prolonged abstinence. Even moderate alcohol sustained use, may increase anxiety and depression levels, in some individuals. In most cases the one good thing is, these drug induced psychiatric disorders, fade away with prolonged abstinence. Drug abuse can cause very serious central nervous system (CNS) effects, which produce changes in mood, levels of awareness, or perceptions and sensations. Most of these drugs also alter systems other than the CNS. Some of these are often thought of as being abused. Some drugs appear to be more likely to lead to uncontrolled use than others, such as pain killers, and mood enhancing drugs. Traditionally, new pharmacotherapy's are quickly adopted in primary care settings, however; drugs for substance abuse treatment have faced many barriers. Naltrexone, a drug originally marketed under the name ReVia,Vivitrol or in oral form as a generic, it is a medication approved for the treatment of alcohol dependence. This drug has reached very few patients. This may be due to a number of factors, including resistance by Addiction Medicine specialists because patient can't afford it, some insurances won't pay for it, or just the lack of resources. It is good to know that scientists, are concern about the parents and family member, because the ability to recognize the signs of drug use, or the symptoms of drug use in family members by parents and spouses, has been affected significantly by the emergence of home drug test technology, which helps identify recent use of common street and prescription drugs, with near lab quality accuracy. 1 in 5 teenagers report having abused a prescription medication, and over 2500 teenagers a day experiment with prescription medications taken from the home. The Massachusetts legislature just enacted a law that requires all pharmacies located within the Commonwealth to display, and offer for sale, medical lock boxes for home use, and to place those products within 50 feet of the pharmacy counter. Products such as the RxDrugsafe, a fingerprint recognition home medical safe box, combat unauthorized access to prescription medications at home, thereby preventing abuse. This new law is the first such law enacted within the United States. Custom Search Advertisements |
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