13 - Substance Misuse Flashcards
What is substance abuse?
- Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous use of psychoactive substances, including alcohol and illicit drugs
What is dependency syndrome?
A cluster of behavioural, cognitive, and physiological phenomena that develop after repeated substance use and that typically include a strong desire to take the drug, giving the drug priority over other activities and sometimes a physical withdrawal state
What are common characteristics of dependency syndrome?
- Difficulties in controlling drug use
- Persisting drug use despite harmful consequences
- Higher priority given to drug use than to other activities
- Increased tolerance for drug
- Withdrawal symptoms
What are the three main types of drugs and some examples?
- Stimulants: Make you feel more alert and have more energy, e.g cocaine and tobacco
- Depressants: Relax you e.g alcohol and cannabis
- Hallucinogens: Can change your perceptions, mood and your senses, e.g ecstasy and mushrooms
What are the three things that affect alcohol consumption?
- Accessibility
- Affordability
- Acceptability
What type of condition is addiction?
Chronic condition, it is normal to relapse!
What are the effects of dependent drug use?
Physical: Dependence, Complications of injecting, blood-bourne viruses, effects of poverty, side effects
Social: Criminality, imprisonment, social exclusion, effect on families and children
Psychological: Fear of withdrawal, cravings, guilt
Mental Heath: Depression
What is an adulterant?
As substance found within other substances that is not legally allowed, e.g water in alcohol
What is recovery capital?
Social, physical, social and cultural factors that determine how easy and long it is to recover from addiction, e.g better social network you will be more likely to recover
What is harm reduction?
When addicts do not want to change so measures taken to reduce their risks and keep them alive
e.g action to prevent death (not using drugs alone, call ambulance, naloxone), action to prevent blood viruses, referral where appropriate
What can be offered to newly presenting drug users?
- Sexual health advice
- Listening
- Screening for blood-borne viruses
- Contraception
- Health check
- Immunisation status
- Signpost to additional help, e.g benefits, safer injecting
- Information on local drug services, e.g turning point
What are the aims of treating drug users?
Describe the treatment regime outlined in the Medical Model
- Detoxification regimes
- Substitute prescribing
- Focus on the physical condition i.e. tolerance, physical withdrawal symptoms, vitamin deficiency, pancreatitis
Describe the treatment regime as outlined in the Disease Model
- Addiction is an illness, with loss of control the primary symptom
- Addiction is genetic & therefore predetermined
- Abstinence/avoidance is the only viable treatment e.g. Alcoholics Anonymous / Narcotics Anonymous
Describe the treatment regime outlined in the Behavioural Model
Addiction doesn’t exist, excessive use is merely a ‘mis-learnt coping-mechanism’ for anxiety/low self-esteem
- Excessive use/misuse is a result of social, economic & familial learned experiences
- Alternative coping mechanisms can be taught, & past experiences addressed
What are the 8 steps outlined in the concordance approach?
