Areas Of Drug Use Research Articles

Health knowledge among teachers: case study of teacher's training college in Benin City, Nigeria.

THE data on health knowledge items in areas of personal health, drug use, community health, environmental health, nutrition, family health, first aid and safety education were collected on a sample of 100 teachers in the teacher training college in Benin City, Nigeria. By means of frequency and percentages of responses to these items, results showed that the majority of the teachers (81%) had adequate knowledge in areas of environmental, community, and personal health; nutrition and first aid and safety while they were inadequate in areas of drug use and family health.

Bridging Consensus and Conflict Theory in Drug Use Research: A “Unified” Theoretic Perspective

The literature on drinking and drug use exhibits considerable fragmentation due to many researchers' practice of concentrating exclusively upon the use of a single substance, thus producing separate literatures specific to different drugs. Fragmentation of the literature has been further compounded by the use of distinct and incompatible theoretic perspectives which guide research efforts, and by the lack of attention to theoretic issues. A new theoretical perspective, a “unified perspective,” is presented here and proposed as a common theoretical framework for researchers working in any substantive area of drug use. This perspective seeks to bridge conflict and consensus theory, and proposes a resolution of problems arising from several limitations and biases associated with these theoretical positions. An empirical application of the unified perspective is offered in support of its applicability and usefulness to drug use research.

Pharmacy's contribution to geriatric care.

It is clear that we currently lack the scientific knowledge necessary to deal with the vast array of problems, both physical and mental, which so often arise as a result of multipathology and its management by multiple-drug use. This lack of fundamental knowledge in the area of drug use, alteration in drug use, and aging reflects, to some degree, the historical neglect of research on the prolems that confront the elderly. Pharmacists can and should take an active part in developing the scientific and clinical data base to ensure better management of drug use among the elderly.

Treatment response in psychiatrically impaired drug abusers

Male veterans treated in the drug abuse TC programs at the Coatesville VA Medical Center were separated into groups based upon their rated degree of psychiatric problem severity. The psychiatric problem severity was the only factor generally related to the admission status of these patients, and the separation yielded three groups which differed in most of the comparison items as well as various psychological measures. Results of the pre-and posttreatment comparisons indicated that there was significant improvement for all groups in the areas of drug use, employment, illegal involvement, and family/social problems. However, the 6-month follow-up status of the high severity group had only reached the level at which the low and medium severity groups entered treatment. These results suggested that despite the improvement shown, the final outcome status of the high severity group was still at a problematic level, with considerable potential for recidivism and readmission. The authors discuss the services offered to treat this growing segment of psychiatrically impaired substance abusers, and suggest that this treatment might be more effectively administered in a psychiatric setting.

A Factor Analysis of a Drug Questionnaire

The purpose of this study was to identify the factorial composition of 55 characteristics of 5,981 subjects. These characteristics were assessed by a self-report inventory containing 55 items pertaining to drug use and alleged related areas of drug use. The significance of using the factor analysis technique is primarily to improve the interpretability of the instrument through a procedure of reducing the 55 interdependent characteristics (items) to a more manageable and meaningful number.