A Close Relationship between Alcohol, Drugs, and Mental Health - Essay Example

Alcohol, Drugs and Mental Health Alcohol, Drugs and Mental Health [The name of the writer appears here] [The name of institution appears here] Introduction There is considered to be a close-relationship between alcohol, drugs and mental health. Infact it is mostly claimed that superfluous intake of alcohol and drug twofold the mental health problem. After caffeine alcohol is the second most commonly and popularly consumed psychoactive drug in the world, and one of the most repeatedly cited reasons for alcohol intake is the change of mood in order to feel relieved and better and also that drinking alcohol and excessive other drug intake also helps to release stress. Subsequently these drinkers and drug takers may also claim that intake is forcing them towards state of depression and is adversely impacting their mental state and activity. (Mukami et al, 2003) Tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use are a public health problem in developed and in developing countries. (Young, 1997) For tobacco and alcohol use, despite a decrease previously observed in some populations, these drugs remain commonly used and illicit drug consumption is still frequent in adolescents. (Giovino, 1995) Most people begin smoking as adolescents. Many of the licit and illicit drug users continue the use in adulthood, and the consequences could affect continuity in participation in work and in family roles, favor delinquent activities, self-reported health, and psychological symptoms. Among the people having used alcohol and/or marijuana during the last year, adolescents are more at risk of dependence than any other age group. Adolescence is an exposed life period due to misunderstood physical and social environment and to life difficulties. Prevention is important for adolescents, particularly because of lack of employment for school leavers in many countries. Hammarstrom underlined that unemployment is a risk indicator for increasing alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug uses as well as for deteriorated health behavior. Nursing Practitioner Role Intelligent nursing care presupposes two things: first the existence of the disease, and, second knowledge on the part of the nurse of the manifestations and something of the nature of the disease. Before the addict can be cared for intelligently, the nurse has first to be convinced that a disease exists, and then has to learn the signs and symptoms and how to combat them. It is an important point to be raised here because it is a generic believe among the medical practitioners and of the general people as well at times that there is no such disease as drug addiction. Persons addicted to drugs are regarded, at best, as weaklings and the worst as criminals and malingerers. It is in the hope of clearing up some of this unfortunate apprehension that the nursing role becomes very important. Role of nurse is very crucial in the aspect that the nurse must obtain the confidence, cooperation and friendship of the patient, as in like any other psychiatric treatment rapport must be established. The general management of the nursing is based on kindness. The patient should be led to have confidence in the entire ward personnel. He should be made to feel that he is an ill man, not an evil one, and that the institution is trying to help him solve his problems, immediate and remote. Gentleness, firmness, sympathy, reassurance, these are most important therapeutic weapons. Alcohol, Drugs and Mental Health Alcohol addiction and psychiatric disorders: According to an American research, overall pervasiveness of alcohol addiction is nearly twice as high in people with psychiatric disorders as compared to the general population. According to a study conducted by Peter that “19.9% of the general population had one or more psychiatric disorders, but in those with alcohol abuse or dependence the figure rose to 36.6%. (Peter, 2000) Another very important study conducted in UK found that the preponderance of patients with first episode obsession reported substance use. Frequency of substance use in these people was twice that of the general population, where cannabis and alcohol were the two most recurrently use substance. (Barnett, 2007) Intake of Drugs and Mental Health: According to an article published in BBC News that “Smoking cannabis virtually doubles the risk of developing mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. The article mentions that this is probably due to some chemical change in the brain that occurs due to persistent smoking of this drug. (BBC News, 2005). Other forms of mental disorders, doctors clearly state that result from excessive alcohol and drug use are depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorders, manic- depressive illness, and schizophrenia. The condition most clearly associated with alcohol abuse and dependence is Anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) - people with ASPD have 21 times the average population risk of experiencing alcohol abuse or dependence. Alcohol and neurological effects: Since alcohol has an elevated preliminary concentration in the brain, neurological effects are seen almost immediately if ample amount of alcohol is consumed to all the well-known signs and symptoms of intoxication and the consequent deterioration of behavior. According to Knight “The effects of alcohol intoxication at various dosage levels are, however, influenced by a range of factors, genetic, psychological, cultural and environmental.” (Knight, 2001) When alcohol is accumulated in blood at level of 50mg%, cognitive mutilation is normally evident, with adverse effects on learning, memory and the ability to process complex information. Person taking excessive alcohol and drugs losses his ability to undertake novel tasks or to carry out the routine work properly and even the psychomotor performance is degraded and hence the higher the blood alcohol level, higher the possibility of impairment of the person. Knight also states that “chronic alcohol dependence is associated with extensive brain damage and cognitive deficits leading in extreme cases to alcoholic dementia, a loss of intellectual functioning combined with amnesia. Alcohol-induced brain damage appears to be partially reversible with abstinence. (Knight, 2001) Supportive point: Intake of Drugs and Mental Health: I agree with this point and would like to place further emphasis on this. The adolescents who declare being serious, attentive, calm, or organized had lower prevalence in contrast to the teenagers who declared being at ease with others, easily irritable, dynamic, having many plans, aggressive, ambitious, disorganized, worried, clumsy, careless, solitary. There was no discrepancy between these findings and the role in drug use of deviant behavior reported by Calafat (Calafat, 1997) that in tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use of conduct problem by Lynskey and Fergusson (1995) that of aggressiveness by Choquet and that in early first experience of risk-taking behavior by Byrd (1996) Jackson et al. underlined an association between weak competence development and early experience with tobacco and alcohol. (Jackson, 1997) Miller and Plant found a relationship between poorer school performance and higher levels of smoking. (Miller, 1996) For health perception, a significant association was found only with smoking and alcohol use. The people who attributed having good health to being lucky had an odds ratio of 1.94 for smoking. It was found that a lower prevalence of alcohol use in the people who thought that good health is good physical and mental shape or equilibrium. This was expected as these definitions would refer to good quality of life. Marked associations are observed between psychosomatic status assessed with the THT or psychotropic drug consumptions and smoking, alcohol use. The THT evaluates the psychological vulnerability. The instrument was constructed by Langner in USA (1962) and introduced in France by Amiel. The relationships were stronger in girls than in boys. This was expected as psychotropic drug consumption was about twice as frequent in girls (after adjustment on age). The psychotropic drugs mostly used were those for headache, nervousness or anguish, and to sleep. These observations were consistent with the relationship between depression and tobacco use found only in girls by Choquet (1994) the correlations between depressive status or anxiety disorders and licit or illicit drug uses reported by Stefanis and Kokkevi Breslau, Kaplan and Glassman and between psychotropic drug consumption and alcohol use by Choquet. It is noted that family environment, psychosomatic status, health perception, personality and sport activities could influence smoking, alcohol use, and illicit drug use. The problem concerns most socio-economic categories and not only the under- privileged. Preventive measures must be developed with the teenagers, but also with their parents, their teachers, the physicians and the nurses of the schools as all these people could influence and are concerned by the life conditions of the adolescents. They must concern all daily activities, especially sport activities and other meetings. Salines stated that an evening out represents a risk indicator of toxic use. (Salines, 1991) It would be advantageous to indicate to the adolescents that it is wrong to associate tobacco use with dynamism or performance as has been shown in most publicity materials. On the contrary, I would like to state that licit and illicit drug use is associated with difficulties in life, psychosomatic status, and disadvantageous self- reported personality. Another noteworthy aspect to mention here is that intake of alcohol and drugs also affect mental health severely that it leads to violent behavior. Evidence of an individual level association between alcohol and violence is widespread. For example, Collins (1981) reviewed a number of studies in which alcohol and violence were associated among individuals. Experimental studies have also shown a consistent relationship at the individual level between alcohol use and aggressive behavior, especially in the presence of social cues that would normally elicit an aggressive response; the consumption of alcohol increases the aggressiveness of this response. Roizen (1993) reports that in nearly 40 studies of violent offenders, and an equal number of studies of victims of violence, alcohol involvement was found in about 50% of the events and people examined. Although most individual-level studies assume that alcohol has a potentially causal role, an argument supported by the experimental studies cited here, some have argued variously that the relationship is spurious that both are caused by third factors or that aggression and violence precede alcohol and drug abuse. In general, little evidence suggests that illicit drugs are uniquely associated with the occurrence of violent crime. Considerable investigation has been made into a possible pharmacological link between amphetamines and violence. Some evidence indicates that in rare cases, either sustained periods of heavy use or extremely high acute doses can induce what has variously been called "toxic psychosis" or "amphetamine- induced psychosis," a reaction that is virtually indistinguishable from schizophrenia. Aside from these extremely rare cases, some evidence may speak to a link between violent behavior and amphetamine use in ethnographic samples and in case-study research. One researcher notes, however, that this link may result from situational influences: "several...subjects seem to have lost intellectual awareness because they lived alone and had little chance to cross-check their delusional thinking. A long-term solitary lifestyle seems particularly significant in fostering this effect." (Ellinwood 1971) Some evidence suggests that cocaine use and violent behavior may be associated one of the most widely reported a pharmacological effect of cocaine in users is feelings of paranoia. At least one group of researchers suggests that cocaine-associated violence "may in part be a defensive reaction to irrational fear" (Miller et al 1991) The route of administration may influence the likelihood of violent behavior in users, with methods delivering the most intense and immediate effects being most closely associated with some forms of violent behavior. Users who smoked the drug in the form of "crack" were most likely to engage in violence proximate to cocaine use, followed by users taking the drug intravenously. Users who "snorted" the drug were found to be least likely to engage in violence. However, these researchers also reported that forms of violence "requiring sustained activity" were not associated with route of administration of cocaine. Because of this, it is concluded that circumstance and situation may be as important as route of administration. The greater influence of social rather than pharmacological factors on the cocaine-violence relationship has also been reported elsewhere. Phencyclidine (PCP) is widely believed to be associated with violence; this conclusion is based almost exclusively on case study research, often of individuals with psychiatric disturbances. Ketamine, a drug pharmacologically quite similar to PCP, has enjoyed increasing popularity in recent years. PCP and Ketamine are classified as "dissociative anaesthetics" because they diminish awareness not only of pain but also of the environment in general. Delusions, paranoia, and (in rare cases) psychosis are among the most commonly reported effects of these drugs by users and clinicians. However, one researcher concludes that emotionally stable people under the influence of PCP probably will not act in a way very different from their normal behavior. Conclusion Several clear conclusions can be drawn from this extensive review of the literature concerning drugs, alcohol, and violence. One is the overwhelming importance of context in any relationship that may exist between substance use and violent behavior. My review of the literature finds a great deal of evidence that the social environment is a much more powerful contributor to the outcome of violent behavior than are pharmacological factors associated with any of the substances reviewed here. Study after study indicates that, even in samples containing relatively high baseline rates of illicit drug use, violent events are overwhelmingly more likely to be associated with the consumption of alcohol than with any other substance. Read More