The topic selected for the annotated bibliography is “Substance Abuse” because of its relevance to the young readers of the society of the United States. The aim of this annotated bibliography is to give an overview of the problem of substance abuse in the crucial age patterns in the United States and infer what the research states about the link between substance abuse and many social evils, psychological complications, and psychiatric problems in vulnerable of the society.
Context
People experience an altered state of consciousness, as they use certain substances including psychoactive drugs that affect the neurotransmitter system of a human who is already suffering from psychological disorders, resulting in the form of sleep on a regular basis. A person who has a substance use disorder often consumes more of the substance than people usually diagnosed with psychological disorders despite experiencing certain adverse consequences of the substance abuse. A person psychologically dependent on the drug or alcohol uses it often in more and more quantity to relieve psychological or emotional distress to achieve that relief he witnessed at consuming lower doses previously.
Crucial Statistics
Recent reports have shown that approximately 1 million people in the United States have died in the year 2021 due to drug-involved overdose and nearly 73% of the U.S. population struggles with illicit substance abuse. Illegal substance abuse costs approximately $500 billion a year to the American economy and is one of the leading causes of accidents, injury, illness, and death. Substance abuse, therefore, is a major health problem the US population confronts that has a tremendous toll on society at multiple levels imposing burdens on the lives of citizens, communities, and governments.
Relevance of the Topic
United States is one of the regions around the world that has to bear adverse consequences of substance abuse in people ranging from 12 years and older risking a major proportion of the lives of the US population each year. This is an important public health issue in the United States and is relevant to every individual diagnosed with or recovering from psychological disorders from any age group of the segment of the psychologically unhealthy US population.
Kandel, D., & Kandel, E. (2015). The Gateway Hypothesis of substance abuse: developmental, biological and societal perspectives. Acta Paediatrica, 104(2), 130-137.
The research study aims to estimate the preceding use of Marijuana, Tobacco, alcohol, and other illicit drugs by exploring the use of drugs on the molecular mechanisms of mice. The mouse model used in the research identifies the biological processes of the living beings that consumed illicit drugs. The experiment of the mouse model in the research was conducted in order to explore the primary effects of substance abuse on the developmental, social, psychological, and biological levels of addicts. The gateway drug hypothesis present study presents refers to the pattern of substance abuse where alcohol or nicotine precedes heroin or cocaine because of the addiction vulnerability. The researchers of the study found that moderate exposure to alcohol in adolescents led to the multifaceted complexity of substance use in adulthood resulting in varied behavioral proxies of substance abuse addiction (Kandel & Kandel, 2015). The most important gateway consideration is that the brain’s vulnerability to drug exposure is dynamic in process and is affected due to age. The study emphasizes the understanding of the effects of drug exposure to particular neuro-development stages essentially adolescence which is crucial despite the legality of substances evolving with the time but still have the potential long-lasting addiction risk in humans.
Jordan, C. J., & Andersen, S. L. (2017). Sensitive periods of substance abuse: Early risk for the transition to dependence. Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 25, 29-44.
According to the article published, the initiation of illicit substance use in the late adolescents and early adulthood increases the risk of substance abuse. The physical and psychological dependence on substances such as alcohol, heroin, or cocaine among persons aged 18 years or older as adolescence is the crucial developmental period that shapes psychological and social behaviors. Thus, the person consuming illicit substances during the adolescent period has an increased risk of developing a lifelong addiction. The study argues that it is probable that if a person consumes substances early in his developmental period, the individual would have an underlying predisposition to substantially maximize substance abuse (Jordan & Andersen, 2017). It is integrated that early substance use increases vulnerability to the brain and interferes with neurodevelopment processes ongoing in the body that result in hyper-reactivity of stress and addiction. Individuals suffering from substance abuse disorder due to early intake of illicit drugs show symptoms of loss of control over substance craving despite adverse consequences of the over-consumption of substance use. The study suggests preventive interventions for substance abuse disorder in young people increase resilience in adolescents developing a physical dependence on the substance.
ABDULLAHI, A. M., & SARMAST, S. T. (2019). Substance Abuse: A Literature Review of the Implications and Solutions.
This review article highlights the global problem affecting youth of the world population who are substance dependent. There are enormous implications of substance abuse to the life of a person who is drug dependent including severe health, social, psychological, and physical problems. The study aims to provide an overview of the negative impacts of substance abuse and defines the intermediary link between addiction and the effects of substance abuse on social, physiological, psychological, developmental, and psychiatric conditions leading to serious complications in individuals, particularly in adolescents. Researchers quote many social, psychological, physical, and medical implications of substance abuse including suicidal ideation, injury-related problems, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Dementia or Alzheimer’s (ABDULLAHI & SARMAST, 2019). Moreover, the risks of psychiatric implications are characterized as anxiety disorder, social phobia, cognitive impairments, and dementia. The review of the literature also states the relationship between maternal addiction and the decreased brain functioning of the newborn. Illicit drugs such as cocaine, alcohol, or heroin taken during pregnancy period ultimately result in decreased brain size and capacity of the fetus leading the unborn baby to develop certain neurodegenerative problems. The review study does not provide explanations about the origin and sources of various drugs but presents a solution that prevention is the only viable measure to prevent substance abuse.
Harstad, E., Levy, S., Committee on Substance Abuse, Levy, S., Ammerman, S. D., Gonzalez, P. K., … & Smith, V. C. (2014). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and substance abuse. Pediatrics, 134(1), e293-e301.
The article has been presented to link the intertwined relationship between substance abuse and other chronic neurobehavioral disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It highlights the risk of developing substance abuse disorder if a young individual in his/her adolescence suffers from a chronic condition of ADHD which is a common disorder of childhood which causes functional impairment in youth. Adolescents and adults suffering from ADHD-induced overwhelm and laziness use substances as a coping mechanism because the disorder may sometimes be hugely debilitating. Stimulant medication or substance use in such cases for coping with the neurobehavioral disorder subsequently leads to potential diversion and abuse which complicates the care process of the addicts as they misuse tobacco, caffeine, alcohol, marijuana, and other stimulant substances. Young people with ADHD often use substances as self-medication by themselves such as caffeine or marijuana to increase dopamine concentrations so that they can escape anxiety. The study recommends the use of stimulant medications to treat ADHD symptoms in children and young people but in moderate amounts only for the management of the risks ADHD poses including diversion, misuse, and abuse (Harstad et al., 2014).
Das, J. K., Salam, R. A., Arshad, A., Finkelstein, Y., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2016). Interventions for adolescent substance abuse: An overview of systematic reviews. Journal of Adolescent Health, 59(4), S61-S75.
The pool of researchers including Arshad, Finkelstein, Salam, and Bhutta conducted an overview of the effectiveness of interventions that are being used as the treatment mechanisms for people with substance abuse disorder (SUD). This overview of the systemic reviews finds numerous interventions starting from school-based prevention programs to family-based intensive interventions as well as mass media campaigns to address the evil of substance abuse to help prevent its spread to vulnerable youth. The overview findings of the present study curate the effective interventions as school-based programs help in preventing young people from consumption of illicit drugs while focusing on the social competence of the individuals that have shown a persistent effect on drug misuse. Furthermore, family-based intervention programs help in reducing smoking while addressing family functioning that has been associated with reduced frequency of alcohol, cannabis, and stimulant drugs in adults (Das et al., 2016). This article overviews the recommended interventions from the existing work reviewed for the research to classify the potential interventions for young adults to improve health outcomes of the young segment of the global society.
Discussion
The problem of substance use disorder is a global issue concerning the lives of young adults as many unhealthy behaviors start sprouting in an individual during their late adolescent and early adulthood stages. The majority of the world’s young population suffers from this disorder on physical, social, and psychological levels affecting individual addicts, their families, and the communities. The articles selected for the annotated bibliography emphasize substance misuse by adolescents as this period is recognized for the onset of unhealthy behaviors that often lead to adulthood challenges or disorders due to several depressing factors such as unemployment, suicidal ideation, health problems, and mental disorders. It mainly affects the young population usually adolescents and young adults of the society leading youth to commit serious crimes while being psychologically challenged in many communities. In essence, addiction to any kind of illicit substance is viewed as immoral and unethical particularly the young segment of any society who indulges in substance abuse is often stigmatized due to the negative perception associated with substance misuse. Addicts are discriminated against in their immediate society because substance abuser can damage relationships with their loved ones and has no self-esteem which often results in fatal suffering for the individual, family, and peers as well as communities where the majority of the young generation is substance dependent.
Jordan and Andersen in the article “Sensitive periods of substance abuse: Early risk for the transition to dependence” recognize the sensitive periods of adolescence and adulthood indulging in substance abuse disorder costing young lives and burdening families. Individuals experiencing these conditions during adolescence end up consuming more substances and become addicts which consequently culminate these substance addicts in a cycle where they are consumed by their addiction to substance abuse. The study “Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and substance abuse” highlights the underlying association between substance abuse disorder and ADHD. It proposes that impulsivity, hyperactivity, poor judgment, lack of concentration, and non-resilience can lead ADHD individuals to try illicit drugs contributing to the development of substance abuse disorder. Moreover, the article “Interventions for adolescent substance abuse” comprehensively overviews and evaluates the effectiveness of the potential interventions including school-based programs and family-based interventions to yield improved health outcomes. Substance use interventions have been acting as a valuable tool to prevent individuals from substance abuse through understanding and adopting different effective strategies by the addicts who need to self-reflect on their unhealthy behaviors. Substance abuse is a serious problem with fatal consequences if not taken care of at the earliest. It is because if young adults are not provided with the necessary support to get rid of substance abuse evil, there is the possibility to relapse if the intervention support is not provided leading a person to serious health problems or even death.
References
ABDULLAHI, A. M., & SARMAST, S. T. (2019). Substance Abuse: A Literature Review of the Implications and Solutions.
Das, J. K., Salam, R. A., Arshad, A., Finkelstein, Y., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2016). Interventions for adolescent substance abuse: An overview of systematic reviews. Journal of Adolescent Health, 59(4), S61–S75.
Harstad, E., Levy, S., Abuse, C. on S., Levy, S., Ammerman, S. D., Gonzalez, P. K., Ryan, S. A., Siqueira, L. M., & Smith, V. C. (2014). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and substance abuse. Pediatrics, 134(1), e293–e301.
Jordan, C. J., & Andersen, S. L. (2017). Sensitive periods of substance abuse: Early risk for the transition to dependence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 25, 29–44.
Kandel, D., & Kandel, E. (2015). The Gateway Hypothesis of substance abuse: Developmental, biological and societal perspectives. Acta Paediatrica, 104(2), 130–137.
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