Dr. Roxanne Dryden-Edwards is an adult, child, and adolescent psychiatrist. She is a former Chair of the Committee on Developmental Disabilities for the American Psychiatric Association, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and Medical Director of the National Center for Children and Families in Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. Shiel received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame. There he was involved in research in radiation biology and received the Huisking Scholarship. After graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine, he completed his Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.
There are many stages of drug abuse, ultimately leading to difficulty in
managing one's life as a result of using drugs.
Individuals who begin using
drugs as juveniles are at greater risk of becoming addicted compared to those
who begin drug use as an adult due to the immaturity of the teenage brain,
particularly of that part of the brain that controls impulses.
The symptoms of
drug abuse include tolerance to a substance, withdrawal episodes, using more
drugs for longer periods of time, and problems managing life issues due to the
use of a drug.
Substance abuse is caused by a number of individual, family,
genetic, and social factors rather than by any one cause.
Although a number of
genes play a role in the development of substance abuse, this is a disease in
which other factors more strongly influence its occurrence.
Substance-abuse
treatment is usually treated based on the stage of the addiction, ranging from
management of risk factors and education to intensive residential treatment
followed by long-term outpatient care and support.
Virtually every drug that is abused by adults is also abused by adolescents.
In addition to alcohol, common categories of drugs of abuse include
the following:
Cannabinoids (for example, marijuana, hashish), sometimes called "pot, weed,
Mary Jane, or herb" and is smoked in a "joint," "blunt," "bong," "backwood," or pipe
Inhalants (for example, gasoline, ammonia), the use of which is
often referred to as "huffing"
Depressants (for example, barbiturates,
benzodiazepines), sometimes called "reds, yellows, yellow jackets, downers or roofies"
Stimulants (for example, amphetamines, cocaine, methamphetamine), sometimes
called "bennies, black beauties, speed, uppers, blow, crack, rock, toot, crank,
crystal, or skippy"
Hallucinogens (for example LSD, "mushrooms"), sometimes called "acid, yellow sunshines,
buttons, or shrooms"
Dissociative anesthetics (for example, phencyclidine/PCP,
ketamine), sometimes called "lovely, boat, Love Boat, angel dust, K, vitamin K, or cat" and
whose use is often referred to as "getting wet"
Medical Author: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Medical Editor:
Barbara
K. Hecht, PhD
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2006, 16.2 million Americans aged 12 and older had taken a prescription pain reliever, tranquilizer, stimulant, or sedative for nonmedical purposes at least once in the year prior to being surveyed. Up to 7 million people, or 2.8% of the U.S. population age 12 or older, had used prescription medications for nonmedical purposes in the month prior to the survey.
Although any type of medication has the potential to be abused, certain
groups of prescription drugs are most commonly abused.
Painkillers: Opioids such as codeineand
morphine are narcotics prescribed to treat pain. Other drugs in this class
include oxycodone(OxyContin), hydrocodone(Vicodin), meperidine(Demerol),
hydromorphone(Dilaudid), and propoxyphene(Darvon).
CNS depressants: Drugs in the
benzodiazepine class are central nervous system (CNS) depressants used to treat
anxietydisorders and sometimes for the short-term treatment of insomnia.
Examples include alprazolam(Xanax), diazepam(Valium), and triazolam(Halcion).
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