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Substance abuse resources
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substance abuse resources
Center for Substance
Abuse Prevention - CSAP is the sole Federal organization with
responsibility for improving accessibility and quality of substance
abuse prevention services.
Drug Abuse
Statistics - The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration presents national and state prevalence and trends
in illegal drug use, the non-medical use of prescription drugs,
alcohol, and tobacco.
DrugsTV - Articles on all
of the major categories of drugs from alcohol and nicotine to
crack cocaine and heroin.
Illegal
Drug Use Statistics - Information on the use and abuse of
illegal drugs in the United States. Provided by the National Center
for Health Statistics.
Lexicon
of Alcohol and Drug Terms - Defines many alcohol and substance
abuse words and phrases from "absolute alcohol" to "zoopsia."
Published by World Health Organization
MEDLINEplus
- Drug Abuse - Resource that provides links to a wide range
of substance abuse resources. Provided by the U.S. National Library
of Medicine.
The National Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University - Think
tank that focuses on the study of all forms of substance abuse,
and how it affects society.
The National Clearinghouse for
Alcohol and Drug Information - Resource for current and comprehensive
information about substance abuse prevention and treatment.
VirtualKid
Teen - Alcohol and Drug Abuse - Simple explanation of alcohol
abuse written for teens. Site includes similar pages about other
drugs.
Substance abuse article
Medical definitions
Substance abuse may lead to addiction or substance dependence.
Medicaly, dependence requires the development of tolerance leading
to withdrawal symptoms. Both abuse and dependence are distinct
from addiction which involves a compulsion to continue using the
substance despite the negative consequences, and may or may not
involve chemical dependency. Dependence almost always implies
abuse, but abuse frequently occurs without dependence, particularly
when an individual first begins to abuse a substance. Dependence
involves physiological proceses while substance abuse reflects
a complex interaction between the individual, the abused substance
and society.
"Substance abuse" is sometimes used as a synonym for
"drug abuse," but this usage is not universaly agreed
upon, the later term usually including any use of illicit drugs
even if such use does not meet the medical definition of abuse.
Both of the most commonly used diagnostic tools (the DSM and the
ICD) no longer use "drug abuse" as a diagnostic criteria,
instead rolling that cluster of syptoms previously referred to
as drug abuse into substance abuse and "substance dependance".
Public health definitions
In the past two decades, public health practicitioners have moved
away from concepts of drug abuse to a broader perspective than
the indivisial, emphasising the role of society. Rather than look
at substance "abuse" many public health professionals
have adopted the terms "alcohol and drug problems" or
"harmful/hazardous use" of drugs.3
Political and criminal justice
In most countries, legislation on substance abuse is written
to criminalise any use of illegal drugs, or illegal use of controlled
drugs.
Mass communication and vernacular usage
The term may be used in newspapers, television etc in a ambiguous,
catch-all sense rather than as a medical or legal term, sometimes
disapprovingly to refer to any drug use at all, particularly of
illicit drugs.
History of Substance abuse
In the early 1950s, the first edition of the American Psychiatric
Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
grouped alcohol and drug abuse under Sociopathic Personality Disturbances,
which were through to be symptoms of deeper psychological disorders
or moral weakness.
The third edition, in the 1980s, was the first to recognise substance
abuse (including drug abuse) and substance dependance as conditions
separate from substance abuse alone, bringing in social and cultural
factors. The definition of dependancr emphasised tollerance to
drugs, and withdrawal from them as key components to diagnosis,
whereas abuse was defined as problematic use with social or occupational
impairment but without withdrawal or tollerance.
In 1987 the DSM-IIIR category "psychoactive substance abuse",
which includes former concepts of 'drug abuse' is defined as "a
maladaptive pattern of use indicated by ...continued use despite
knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent social, occupational,
psychological or physical problem that is caused or exacerbated
by the use (or by) recurrent use in situations in which it is
physically hazardous". It is a residual category, with dependence
taking precedence when applicable. It was the first definition
to give equal weight to behavioural and physiological factors
in dignosis.
By 1988, the DSM-IV defines substance dependance as a syndrome
involving compulsive use, with or without tolerance and withdrawal;
whereas substance abuse is problematic use without compulsive
use, significant tolerance, or withdrawal.
Diagnosis
The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM) issued by the American Psychiatric Association
defines substance abuse as:
* A. A maladaptive pattern of substance use leading to clinically
significant impairment or distress, as manifested by one (or more)
of the following, occurring within a 12-month period:
1. Recurrent substance use resulting in a failure to fulfill
major role obligations at work, school, or home (e.g., repeated
absences or poor work performance related to substance use; substance-related
absences, suspensions or expulsions from school; neglect of children
or household)
2. Recurrent substance use in situations in which it is physically
hazardous (e.g., driving an automobile or operating a machine
when impaired by substance use)
3. Recurrent substance-related legal problems (e.g., arrests for
substance-related disorderly conduct
4. Continued substance use despite having persistent or recurrent
social or interpersonal problems caused or exacerbated by the
effects of the substance (e.g., arguments with spouse about consequences
of intoxication, physical fights)
United States
As of 1999, substance abuse in the U.S. was estimated to be responsible
for 590,000 deaths and 40 million injuries and illnesses annually.
The total economic costs have been estimated to be close to $428
billion. It is estimated that one fourth of Americans over the
age of 15 have physiological dependence on at least one substance.
This informational article is licensed under the
GNU
Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia
article Substance
abuse .
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