Major Issues in Epidemiology - Research Paper Example

?Full and section number of Epidemiology is nothing but the study of various factors related to health and illness found in a population. Epidemiology includes the study of health related elements and events found at a population level. Epidemiology involves studying about diseases and applying the results to help control diseases in the society. Epidemiology studies bring solution to health problems and other health related risk factors that affect a population. Epidemiology is a branch of medicine that includes different methods that are targeted towards performing epidemiological investigations. Study of distribution and determinants of various factors that are related to public health are performed through epidemiological methods. Descriptive studies and observations are done for studying distribution. Analytical studies help study determinants. Epidemiological studies helps bring evidence-based medicine that help determine good clinical practices. It also helps identify the various risk factors of diseases that afflict populations. Epidemiology studies also help bring preventative medicine for diseases. Epidemiological studies include investigating communicable and non-communicable diseases. Epidemiology involves studying design, collecting necessary data, making statistical analysis, documenting the final results and publishing them. Epidemiology touches other science branches like biostatistics, biology and social science. Biological studies enable understanding disease processes. Biostatistics provides information that is needed for studying about diseases. Social science disciples provide the risk factors that help understand diseases better. Epidemiology findings control diseases in populations. Public health is the science that in intended to prevent diseases in society. Public health looks into the causes of diseases through the surveillance of cases. Public health help stop unhealthy and unhygienic practices and promotes healthy behaviors. Public health enables the elimination of various diseases that afflict society. It promotes prolonged life and encourages good health in the population. Public health includes organized efforts that bring health awareness in the society. Public health includes hospitals, organizations, communities, societies and individuals. Public health checks various diseases that affect children and adults. Public health considers the various threats that negatively influence the health of the community. Public health performs population health analysis that helps develop various programs that would prevent diseases in society. The population that is concerned can be a small group of people or a big nation that show a common health behavior. For example, a pandemic that affects a large population can alarm public health so that they find a solution to avoid the disease in future. Public health is branched into epidemiology (study of health and illness), biostatistics (health information of population) and health services (that assists population check health issues). Social health, behavioral health, occupational health and environmental health are other major subfields. Apart from these activities public health involves treating certain diseases so that it can be prevented in certain other circumstances, for example, during the spread of an epidemic. Child vaccination programs, condom distribution and distribution of nutrient supplements are some of the activities of public health. Public health measures have wiped off several epidemics and other diseases in certain places. The objective of public health is to eliminate diseases and improve the lives of people. Prevention and treatment of diseases promotes the health of population. People with mental illnesses are very much susceptible to alcohol and drug abuse. They increasingly use alcohol and other drugs. Alcohol and other types of drugs are not difficult to obtain these days. Community based treatment also increases the availability of medicines and drugs. People who are affected with mental illnesses like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are highly vulnerable to alcohol and other types of drugs. Marijuana and Cocaine are highly popular among these groups. As per the studies performed on epidemiology, more than half of the people who are affected with mental illness are found to be becoming victims of substance use disorder. People with mental illness depend on alcohol and other drugs. Mental illness is found to be making people increasingly vulnerable to drugs and alcohol. Epidemiology studies are trying to find the relationship between mental illness and substance abuse. It is however a controversy why mentally ill people are becoming victims of drugs. Certain studies say that substance abuse may bring mental illness in weak people. Some studies, however, reveal that people with psychiatric disorders use drugs in their attempt to heal themselves from the symptoms of their disease. They also use alcohol and other drugs to alleviate side effects of the medications they are taking. Psychological drawbacks like depression, poor cognitive function, social isolation, anxiety, poor interpersonal skills and prolonged pain drives people to alcohol and drug abuse. These risk factors that constitute mental illness have been making people try alcohol and drugs. Poverty, loneliness, insomnia, lack of structured activities and similar issues pushes people to find false solace in drugs and alcohol. People make misguided attempt to find relief by trying alcohol and drugs. At the same time, substance abuse has been found to be worsening mental illness symptoms in certain individuals. Substance abuse also can exclusively cause mental illness in some people. If an individual with an established mental disorder use alcohol and other drugs, he is very likely to fall prey to other mental sicknesses. Those with mental disorders are highly sensitive to the various effects of alcohol and drugs. Even slight doses of nicotine, marijuana or alcohol can bring psychotic symptoms in an individual with schizophrenia. Small dose of cocaine and certain other drugs can worsen prolonged psychotic problems in certain people. All these makes doctors strictly forbid mentally sick people from using alcohol and other drugs. People with severe mental illness should fully abstain from alcohol and other drugs. Substance abuse is found to make health and social problems worse. Substance abuse is also causing unruly behavior, poor relationships, bad nutrition, unstable housing, poor financial management and various other problems. Substance abuse would make mental problems worse. Substance abuse would also negatively influence the treatment of mental sicknesses. Those with dual diagnosis, those with substance abuse problem and mental illness together, are found to be in troubles as both problems aggravate each other. Those with dual diagnosis are also found to be denying rehabilitation and treatment. They refuse to accept that they are having these problems. They have great psychosocial instability and other problems that make them deny the help offered to them. People with dual diagnosis are therefore highly affected by hospitalization, homelessness, isolation, and various other problems. The problems associated with dual diagnosis pose a big burden to the families of the affected people. Violence, disruptive behavior and other characters of the affected people shatters their family. Relationships are also highly affected by substance abuse and mental health problems. Surveys give the results that mental illness and drug abuse do occur simultaneously in an individual. Six out of ten individuals who are afflicted with drug abuse suffer from some sort of mental illness. However high rate of this coexistence does not always mean that one condition caused the other. Even though one condition appeared first, it is not necessary that the second condition would follow. Substance abuse may cause mental illness. Moreover mental illness can lead a person to substance abuse. Both mental illness and drug abuse can be caused by some external risk factors. All these condition can also overlap, in varying degrees, to make a person a drug addict and mentally ill individual. Substance abuse and mental illness co-occur due to different reasons. Genetic vulnerabilities have been found to be a major reason for this problem. Studies say that common genetic factors may automatically drive individuals to both mental illness and substance abuse. People with these genetic characters are much vulnerable to the second disorder if they are affected with the first disorder. Other external factors or environmental triggers are also causing substance abuse and mental illness. Stress, anxiety, trauma, physical abuse, sexual abuse, insomnia, exposure to drugs and few factors that can lead an individual to mental illness and drug abuse. Those with genetic vulnerabilities are highly vulnerable to mental illness and substance abuse if they are affected by the above factors. Participation of similar brain regions is also found to have some relationship with the coexistence of drug abuse and mental illness. Mental illness and drug abuse can affect certain parts of brain. Brain circuits that are related to reward processing and circuits that are involved with stress response are found to be affected by usage of drugs. These circuits also exhibit some abnormalities in certain mental disorders. Mental illness and substance abuse are developmental disorders. These disorders are developed in childhood period or adolescence period, when the brain is going through crucial developmental changes. Early exposure of alcohol or other drugs can transform brain in ways that would increase the risk for mental illness. Similarly, mental disorder in early periods makes the individual under the high risk of substance abuse. Drug abuse and mental illness, and its co-existence are very common. People with anxiety disorders, insomnia and mood disorders are highly likely to develop a drug disorder. Those with substance abuse problem are twice likely to be affected by anxiety disorders and other mood problems. The rates of co-existence of disorders also vary by gender. Among people with drug disorders, women are highly vulnerable to anxiety disorders, stress disorder, depression and other mood problems. Men, on the other hand, are likely to develop antisocial personality disorder. Simultaneous occurrence of substance abuse and mental illness can be diagnosed and treated. High rate of coexistence of these disorders points to the need for a better approach that identifies examines and treats both disorders. People with both disorders show complex symptoms compared to people with either disorder alone. Integrated treatment is therefore required for those with both disorders. Patients should be closely monitored so that symptoms of drug abuse may not be mistaken as a symptom of mental disorder. Mental disease can pave the way for drug abuse, and drug abuse can increase vulnerability to mental illness. Diagnosis and treatment of one problem will reduce the risk of the other disorder. Studies recommend proper interventions to cure both disorders concurrently. This is however difficult to implement. The healthcare systems that provide healthcare services of mental illness and substance abuse are disconnected. They are therefore unable to consider both disorders. Physicians treat those with mental illness, while service providers of varying backgrounds treat those with drug abuse problem. Substance abuse treatment centers avoid using medications that are used for treating mental disorders. Behavioral treatment methods that are specialized for particular genders and age groups have promised treatment for both disorders. Research is going on to invent medications that can treat both disorders together. All-purpose diagnosis and simultaneous therapy will bring good results for people with both disorders. References Cuffel BJ: Comorbid substance use disorder: prevalence, patterns of use, and course. New Directions for Mental Health Services, no 70:93-106, 1996 Dual Diagnosis of Mental Illness and Substance Abuse: Collected Articles From H&CP. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association, 1993 Fowler IL, Carr VJ, Carter NT, et al: Patterns of current and lifetime substance use in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 24:443-455, 1998 Drake RE, Wallach MA: Is moderate drinking realistic for persons with severe mental disorder? Hospital and Community Psychiatry 44:780-782, 1993 Skinner HA: The Drug Abuse Screening Test. Addictive Behaviors 7:363-371, 1982 McLellan AT, Kushner H, Metzger D, et al: The fifth edition of the Addiction Severity Index. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 9:199-213, 1992 Lehman AF, Myers CP, Dixon LB, et al: Detection of substance use disorders among psychiatric inpatients. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 184:228-233, 1996 Sobell LC, Sobell MB: Time Line Follow Back: a technique for assessing self-reported alcohol consumption, in Measuring Alcohol Consumption. Edited by Litten RZ, Allen JP. Totowa, NJ, Humana, 1992 Read More