Characteristic of addictive disorders adolescent behavior who use psychoactive substances. Algorithm providing health and social care

Abstract

Background. The problem of substance use among the population of different countries, and also in Ukraine, is one of the most significant among the leading medical and social issues of our time. It is characterized by a number of socio-economic features and related changes in the psychological climate among the population. Particularly seriously, these phenomena destroy still unformed personality of adolescents and young people.
 Objective – to develop new approaches to the prevention of addictive conditions of adolescents who use psychoactive substances through early diagnosis and timely medical and social care.
 Methods. The research methods were a unified map, a system of AUDIT-like tests to identify the characteristics of the use of psychoactive substances by adolescents, methods for determining personality and character accentuations, anxiety, depression and others.
 Results. Among the total number of respondents who use psychoactive substances (1374 people (91,6%)) the largest one was the group of people who used alcohol-containing substances – 92,3%. Mostly these were drinks with low alcohol content (beer, various low-alcohol, tonic drinks, fashionable in the modern youth environment), but were consumed systematically in large doses. Most adolescents when taking various psychoactive substances are mainly in the area of “safe use” (1-7 points) or “dangerous use” (8-15 points), but without harmful effects or states of dependence. However, with the most common types of psychoactive substances (alcoholic beverages, tobacco), some respondents switched to more severe forms of substance use, namely: “with harmful effects” or “dependent conditions”. According to the study, with smoking, the above transition is more intense. Among other psychoactive substances, the level of “harmful effects” is more often observed with the use of psychostimulants – 15,4% and 5,5%; respectively opiates (opioids) – 9,3%; cannabinoids – 5,6%.
 Conclusions. The research revealed certain characteristics of psychoactive substances of adolescence, which can be detected using AUDIT tests, which allow to obtain a description of the degree of use of psychoactive substances, assessment of pathopsychological and clinical-psychopathological features of certain prognosis for the future. The predisposing factor for the use of psychoactive substances is neuropsychological instability, accentuation of character (emotional, excitable, steroid, conformity and other types); peculiarity of behavioral reactions of adolescence (protest, grouping, emancipation, etc.) and other features of teenagers.