Substance Drug Abuse and Assessment - Article Example

Substance Drug Abuse and Assessment Introduction The increase of the drug use among youngsters and adults has significantly increased over the period. The excessive use of drugs has been associated with the mood alternation. The dependence of the various harmful psychoactive substances such as, alcohol and other illicit drugs are referred as Substance Abuse. The studies and researches show that the addictiveness and excessive use of psychoactive substance can lead to some health and cognitive problems. In addition, leads to dependence syndrome, that is, behavioral cognitive and physiological phenomena that create persisting desire for the intake of the drug. There are a number of psychological assessments to evaluate the psychological conditions of these patients. This document shall illustrate the effects of substance drug abuse on the cognitive and personalities of the patient. It further elaborates the strengths and weaknesses of the assessment tools. Description According to the study of Banerjee and Huband (2009), assessment personality disorder plays a significant role to assess the condition of the patient, as these conditions significantly impacts on the functioning in all areas of life. Similarly, there are several assessment suggested. Lima and Kaboski (2005) in their study highlight that assessment personality disorder (MMPI-2) is efficient and reliable means to determine psychiatric and medical needs of the patient. According to Rouse, Butcher and Miller (1999), ‘Substance abuse is a significant problem that affected about 18 percent of the adult in the life history. The study illustrates that the early diagnose of the substance abuse can be an effective method to assess the problems. Solowij and Babor (2002) highlight the impacts of cannabis on the mental and physical aspects of the patient and the obstacle patient suffer in the treatment. Tyrer and Inbahimi (2007) elaborate the critical development of the assessment to determine and evaluate the condition of patient suffering from personality disorder. Significance of Issue The wide spread of the increasing usage of drugs has resulted severe health issues. One of the major effects of the substance abuse is its impact on the cognitive abilities of individuals. Substance abuse is one menace that should be controlled at any cost. Its effects cannot only be felt in the body, but its effects can also be measured in families, friends and to an extent on society, as well. Substance abuse is considered to be a public health issue because of its rippling effects on the society. It has been observed that users, who use drugs frequently spend more time away from their professional life, are always found with some kind of illness for which they are accruing different treatments. People suffering in families are taking more time off in order to deal with the ill ones. The observed problems have adverse effects on the country’s economy and therefore, different types of programs are being performed in order to provide the victims an option of treating the illness. This problem has multi-generational effects. Excessive use of drugs causes a profound disturbance in family relation. Addicts are found getting emotionally violated, tending to lie and are found stealing from family in order to satisfy their habits. According to the study of Solowji and Babor (2002), the continuous use of drugs can lead to adverse affects on the cognitive abilities of the person. Addictive behavior of the patients can lead to the imbalanced relationships with the environment, intolerance, and hypertension etc. Chemical dependency is also a problem monitored in drug addicts (Solowij, Stephens, offman, & Babor, 2002). This means that people who are addicted to using of frequent drug have been found with a psychological disorder. The study of Lima and Kaboski (2005) highlights that the long-term use of cannabis can lead to the memory loss and diseases like Alzheimer (Lima, Stanely, Sheila, & Kaboski, 2005). They are more controlled by use of drugs and have a lesser space for opinions or feeling and lack concentration. They find themselves helpless in front of drug and are required with it in order to continue their regular life. One point at which substance use can be most brutal is the time when the addicts try to terminate the habit. Drug withdrawal is violent and painful to the body. It has also been viewed that many who try to end this are faced with a lot of physical and psychological problems at the time of withdrawal and have to scarify their lives. Therefore a proper measure to drug detoxification should be adopted medically so such incidents could be ignored. Review of Assessment Multiple instruments to diagnose substance use disorder (SUD) have been formulated, various drug assessments have been designed to evaluate cogitative and personality of substance abuse patients. The National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) has tried to select the most appropriate SUD diagnostic instruments for its clinical trials. According to the study Rouse and Miller (1999), In order to determine the effects of substance abuse on the cognitive abilities of the person, there are various assessment tools used in the clinical setting. Substance drug abuses are effective to diagnose personality and cognitive status of these patients (Rouse, Butcher, & Miller, 1999). Personality and Cognitive Assessment The study of Overhosler (2009) the excessive use of drugs and alcohol has affected about 10 percent is victims of personality disorder. People who use drugs have suffering from a personality disorder and are predicted to have a high level of depression and anxiety. In order to assess personality of the people suffering from substance disorder there are various clinical assessment such as, ICD-10 and DSM- IV. The assessment can be an effective clinical tool to determine the mental status of the patient, level of addictiveness and behavior patterns of the patient. It provides an understanding about change in the behavior patterns of individual with the intake of the drugs, it allow doctors to determine their potential and abilities, treatment, discharge and aftercare planning of the patient. In addition, it allows investigating depressive symptom, social phobia, and anxiety disorders. Wechsler Memory Scale is one of the most widely used assessment scale to attain effective results, as it provides most advance and effective measure the cognitive condition of the patient. This is because of the reason that Wechsler Memory Scale assesses genetic inheritance, brain dysfunction, medico legal evaluation and psycho education evaluation among adults and adolescents. Broadbent and Parkes (1999) suggest that the cognitive failure questionnaire correlates other measures and cognitive abilities of the patient; it provides understanding about deficit memory, absent mindedness and slips of action. The questionnaires provide understanding about the failures of perception, memory and motor function. in addition, it reflects that lapses in memory and its scores on the questionnaires positively correlated with the increase in distraction as an indicator to assess mental condition of the patient. It is essential to determine mental health conditions of the patient suffering through substance drug abuse in an effective manner. It plays a significant role in the clinical settings to reduces practice variation, improve clinical outcome and optimize the resource utilization. It plays a significant role to assess the mental status of an individual. CLISD-PA model can be used in the clinical settings to interview the Drinking Assessment Interview Intake; it provides overview about the patient alcohol and drug consumption for over a period. Assessment like, Standardized Clinical Assessment allows determining the extent of dependency of the patient, consumption and persistent urge for the intake of alcohol or drugs (Banerjee, Gibbon, & Huband, 2009). The assessment can be an effective source to inform patients about their condition and seek appropriate treatment. Critical Analysis There are several assessment tool and methods used in the clinical settings to identify mental condition of individual suffering with substance abuse, this included self reports, checklists and structured interview. This assessment allows determining the psychological pathways of the patient suffering substance drug abuse, dependency of the drug, presence of personality disorder. There are several of instruments and tools to diagnose the substance abuse. The reliability of the assessment is highly depended on the two main areas, that is, the inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability (Banerjee, Gibbon, & Huband, 2009). This is because of the reason that the reliability of the assessment is dependent on the extent of agreement between the assessor and subsequent testing. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory II allows to determine personality characteristics, severity and co existence, but it does not provide accurate personality dimension to determine the psychopathology of the patient, whereas the test like International Personality Disorder Examination highlights the presence or absence of the personality disorder, where as the accuracy of the existence of personality disorder is abrupt. The personality disorder assessment does not provide an overview about the behavior patterns of the patient (Tyrer, Coombs, & Inbrahimi, 2007). Analyzing Standardized Assessment it can be determined that the tools are an effective source to determine the intensity of the dependency of the drugs. The information extracted through the standardized assessment is considered to be more effective to determine the level of consumption and intake of alcohol or drugs (Banerjee, Gibbon, & Huband, 2009). It provides an overview about the patient’s behavior that can be an effective tool to take the right decision and treatments at the right time. One of the limitation of the assessment is that it provides a general and collective information, it does not establish a connection with the individual that is essential during diagnose and treatment (Banerjee, Gibbon, & Huband, 2009). But he major limitation of this assessment is that it does not provides a complete overview about the behavior patterns of an individual that may cause further issues to diagnose the issue or proceed with the appropriate treatment. Conclusion Analyzing the information it can be concluded that the substance abuse has rapidly increased with the time. Researches and studies show that there have been numerous of assessment proposed to diagnose substance abuse among people. The main objective of these assessments is to determine personality and cognitive condition of the patient. Assessments like MMPT, Wechsler Memory Scale etc provides brief understanding regarding personality and cogitative condition of patient suffering from substance abuse. The limitations of assessment has leads to delay in the appropriate treatment and controlling measures, in addition it has been observed that these treatment is more relied on the personal experiences and judgments of the health personnel. Therefore, it is essential that a clinical assessment shall carefully identify mental and behavior patterns of the patient to overcome the obstacles for adequate treatment of the patient. References Banerjee, P., Gibbon, S., & Huband, N. (2009). Assessment of Personality Disorder. Advance in Psychiatric Treatment , 389-397. Lima, E. N., Stanely, Sheila, & Kaboski, B. (2005). The Incremental validity of the MMPI-2: When Does Therapist Access Not Enhance Treatment Outcome? Psychological Assessment , 17 (4), 462-468. Rouse, S., Butcher, J., & Miller, K. (1999). Assessment of Substance Abuse in Psychotherapy Clients The Effectiveness of the MMPI-2 Substance Abuse Scales. Psychological Assessment , 11 (1), 101-107. Solowij, N., Stephens, R. S., offman, R., & Babor, T. (2002). Coginitive functioning of Long-term heavy Cannabis Users Seek Treatment. JAMA , 287 (9), 1123-1131. Tyrer, P., Coombs, N., & Inbrahimi, F. (2007). Critical development in the assessments of personality disorder. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 51-59. Read More