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Nov 2018 DOI 10.14302/issn.2324-7339.jcrhap-18-2291
In The Gambia like all nations, drug abuse is seen as a social and health problem that has many serious implications for the physical, social, psychological and intellectual development of the victims more especially, the children. Therefore, it continues to be a concern to families, community leaders, educators, social workers, health care professionals, academics, government and its development partners. Though there are some studies on drug abuse, there is none on children and drug abuse focusing on the street children the most vulnerable category. Street children are hypothesized to be more at risk of any epidemic including drug abuse. This study sought to determine the risk and prevalence of drug abuse among street children focusing on those in the car parks. The research was focused on six critical areas: level of knowledge of drug abuse, perception towards it, level of knowledge of the causes of it in the community and among street children, level of knowledge of negative impacts of it, level of knowledge of the preventive methods; and level of knowledge of the support services and treatments needed by victims. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from thirty five participants (i.e. one driver and six casual apprentices from each of the five car parks) were interviewed. The data was presented and analyzed using tables and percentage. The findings revealed among other things, that there is high level of awareness of drug abuse but the feelings towards it are mixed. Like other children, street children are abusing drugs mainly due to peer influence with the ultimate objective of getting high to relief stress, group recognition, desire to be trusted by peers, etc. Similarly, participants are highly aware of the negative impacts encompassing fighting, stealing, mental illness, etc. To finance the behavior, victims are engaged in all types of dangerous antisocial behavior including romantic ones exposing them to a range of diseases including STIs and HIV/AIDS. Marijuana is the most commonly abused drug. Though in the minority, some have started experimenting cocaine/coke, hashish; and heroin. While participants have good knowledge of the critical methods to fight drug abuse, the support services needed by victims, victims are mostly reluctant to seek the services not only because they are hard to find but fear societal stigmatization, exclusion and discrimination and professionals’ maltreatments.
Oct 2021 DOI 10.14302/issn.2643-6655.jcap-21-3922
This study aimed to evaluate acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) effectiveness in reducing high-risk behaviors and elevating problem-solving strategies in adolescents with addiction susceptibility in cyberspace. This study is longitudinal with quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. The target community in this research was 60 female students randomly selected from a Persian high school in Iran. Participants were randomly divided and placed equally into the experimental and control groups. The participants’ entry criteria were gender, aged from 15 to 18 years, addiction susceptibility, and high-risk behaviors cut-off points. Eight training sessions of ACT were presented in cyberspace for the experimental group between the pre-test and post-test intervals. Data collection instruments were the Iranian youth risk-taking scale, problem-solving strategies, and Iranian adolescents’ addiction susceptibility questionnaires. Participants were followed up after two months. The results using multivariate analysis of among subjects ANOVA showed ACT significantly influenced high-risk behaviors and its’ sub-scales except for the violence (p < .001).Furthermore, ACT affected the problem-solving strategies and its’ sub-scales instead of control, creativity, and confidence (p < .001). According to the findings, ACT decreased high-risk behaviors such as drug abuse, smoking, and unprotected sexual behaviors. These changes might be due to decreased helplessness and avoidance as well as increased acceptance and tendency to solve problems. Instead, problem-solving strategies were improved through ACT cyber treatment.
Jun 2021 DOI 10.14302/issn.2692-1537.ijcv-21-3758
“Health Promoting Village” concept named as “Happy Villages” started in 2007 in Badulla District in Uva Province was a community mobilization process through which village communities have been empowered to look after their community health. The areas included were Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD), Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) prevention , Alcohol and drug abuse. Gender Based Violence. The programmed used many interactive tools as “Mood Chart” or “Happiness Calendar” which was giving a visualizing effect. Continuous assessments done from 2009 to 2013 showed that the Health promotion strategies used in the Happy Village concept in the Uva Province can effectively and efficiently be utilized for improvement of nutrition and achievement of milestones in children. From 2017 a National program is launched named “Happy Villages”. During the Covid 19 outbreak health promotion approaches were initiated to change in lay communities successfully. Villagers had actively engaged, collectively acted in responsible manner, and identified measures to prevent COVID-19 transmission in their households, neighbourhood and community. The use of village empowerment had become a fruitful source to face the Covid pandemic in Sri Lanka. Almost 300 “Happy Villages” around the country have made facing the Covid epidemic their chief task. Many innovative ideas and practices in facing Covid 19 pandemic at village level including a visualizing calendar to identify the risk behaviours of the family members as well as the Happiness calendar to identify the family stress levels are among them. Health promotion concept is getting rooted around the country with active participation of the villages with a multisectoral support. Continuous monitoring and evaluation and sharing best practices will show the world the effectiveness of Health Promotion and the ability of empowered people in facing pandemic situations
Jan 2019 DOI 10.14302/issn.2574-612X.ijpr-18-2503
Since the 2nd part of last century neo-shamanic rituals using mind-altering extracts from plants or animals have become increasingly popular in Europe and the USA. The first rituals coming to the west were based on drinking a special Amazonian tea, Ayahuasca, based on 2 different plants, with active compounds belonging to the class of the beta-carbolines (harmala alkaloids) and tryptamines. The use of such compounds will be described from the perspective of the transformative psychopharmacology: that part of psychopharmacology studying the use of psychoactive compounds to achieve a new balance, a transformation or healing and sometimes even leading to a cure. Examples of curing are meanwhile well documented, for instance the positive influence on drug abuse and addiction, alcoholism. The importance of the healing aspects of these rituals however are often neglected or overlooked. For users, these are key however. As medicine becomes more and more personalized and postmodern, it will be relevant to understand why patients and healthy people decide to participate in healing rituals based on psycho-active compounds. We will present the pharmacology, the transformative psychopharmacology, the effects and adverse events of 5-methoxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) and its place in postmodern medicine.
Dec 2018 DOI 10.14302/issn.2578-8590.ipj-18-2524
The pineal gland constitutes a major neuroendocrine organ in the brain. By mean of its neurohormone melatonin it transduces exogenous signals such as circadian and seasonal variations of light and temperature into proper hormonal changes which adjust and adapt internal endocrine functions. Alteration of circadian rhythms has been associated with affective disorders, psychosomatic diseases and cancer. It has been observed that light deprivation, which stimulates (the enzymes responsible for) melatonin production in the pineal, enhances the animal's ethanol preference. Similarly, administration of the pineal hormone to rats maintained under normal conditions of constant photoperiod also induced ethanol drinking. Our hypothesis is that in normal conditions melatonin might be acting as a cerebral "pacemaker", sensitive to endogenous as well as exogenous stimuli in the attempt to maintain an equilibrate circadian interaction between the cerebral activities of endogenous aminergic and opiates systems. Abnormal states (i.e. drug abuse) could result in altered pineal activity, then in rhythmically altered functions of cerebral opiates and/or monoamine neurotransmitters. This may led to the development of a “reward - urge for drug rhythm” resulting in craving, ending in addiction.