Substance Abuse Disorder - Assignment Example

Symptoms Substance abuse leads to distress or clinically significant impairment, manifested by the occurrence of at least three of the following at a time in a given period of 1 year (Grohol, 2013): Tolerance is defined as a need for increased amount of the substance to experience the same effect as continued use of the same amount causes markedly diminished effect. Withdrawal is manifested in at least two of these conditions that may take anywhere from few hours to few days of reduced drug intake to develop; Rapid pulse or sweating, insomnia, increased hand tremor, physical agitation, vomiting or nausea, anxiety, and grand mal seizures.

Usually, the individual takes the same substance in order to relieve the symptoms of withdrawal. The individual has to take the substance in larger amounts or over extended periods than intended originally. Attempts to control substance abuse or cut down the quantity of intake of substance prove futile. The individual spends considerable time trying to get the substance they abuse. This may include covering long distances just to get the substance. . on (WHO, 2013), global rates of prevalence of drug use disorders were found to range from 0 to 3 per cent among adults in the year 2004 whereas global rates for alcohol use disorders were found to range from 0 to 16 per cent in the same year.

People engaging in substance abuse at a younger age are more likely to experience serious harmful effects on health later in life than people getting in substance use later in life. The National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in which over 40,000 adults were surveyed led to the results that the likelihood of meeting lifetime DSM-IV criteria for disorder related to any type of drug use was twice as much in men as it was in women; 13.

8 per cent of men met this criteria in comparison to 7.1 per cent of women (Conway et al., 2006). Prevalence rates for alcohol abuse ranged over a period of 12 months in can of men have been found to be 3 times as high as they are among women; prevalence rates among men were 6.9 per cent whereas those among women were 2.6 per cent (Grant et al., 2004). These ratios are in line with the past epidemiological surveys’ findings which shows that gender plays a very important role in determining an individual’s vulnerability to substance abuse disorders in general and alcohol abuse disorders in particular.

Treatment Detoxification Early treatment of substance abuse is acute withdrawal from the habit that includes medical detoxification. In this treatment, the patient is given doses of narcotics or anxiolytics to lessen the withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal and craving is also treated with the help of an experimental drug called as ibogaine. Neurofeedback therapy significantly improves the condition of