Drug Abuse - Research Proposal Example

SMART Recovery Group for Working Adults with Drug Addiction 0 Introduction i. Study overview Drug abuse among working adults has shown trends of increasing each year, with the trend costing the government huge amounts in terms of treatment, rehabilitation, deaths and related costs. Tobacco and alcohol are among the most abused drugs, and have defied concerted efforts aimed at creating awareness regarding the danger of drug abuse in the society. For example, more than 400,000 Americans die each year from cigarette smoking effects and complications (Galea, Nandl & Vlahov, 2004). In addition, one in every five deaths in is caused by tobacco related complications. Drug abuse in adults results in chronic diseases with permanent or long lasting progressive conditions, though this may be prevented through good care or change of behaviors. Consequently, it is estimated that alcohol and drug abuse are responsible for increased rate of controllable diseases within the population, with substance use disorders being recorded at 9% of all Americans, out of which only a partly 10% individuals access or have access to rehabilitee treatment (Reif et al, 2011).there are varying effects of alcohol and illicit abuse of other drugs. These may range from dependence systems that lead to reduced performance in important activities, and abuse, which may lead to drunk driving; this exposes the individual to other serious risks (Galea, Nandl & Vlahov, 2004). According to Galea, Nandl & Vlahov (2004) drug abuse prevalence is too high such that about 4.7% of all adult pollution reported to have driven while under the influence of illicit drugs, while 14.5% reported to have driven under alcohol intoxication in as study carried out in 2002. Besides the effects of alcohol abuse, Nicotine in tobacco remains as the leading cause of death in both developed and developing countries. The prevalence of nicotine from tobacco smoking has led to increased costs in healthcare facilities; nicotine replacement therapies have been initiated to help millions of tobacco smokers from the harsh side effects of cigarette smoking. However, some of the drugs orally administered in eliminating nicotine content from the body such as bupropion and vernicline have portrayed limitations in effective treatment of nicotine effects in the body, making nicotine addiction an expensive condition to treat (Islam & Rahman, 2012), which justifies a study to understand nicotine addiction in this group. The problem created by nicotine concentration in the body is thus one that has baffled health practitioners in finding the best way to treat such conditions; resulting to a huge capital outlay set aside in nicotine related research in finding out the best way to treat cigarette smoking effects (Islam & Rahman, 2012). Therefore, in addition to being an individual’s health risk, nicotine addiction is a substantial cause of government spending in treatment, research, and rehabilitation. Substance abuse leads to terminal diseases and conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol levels, hypertension, and other heart diseases, which are a third of all chronic conditions resulting from substance abuse. The above chronic diseases have vast effects in that they reduce the effectiveness in treatment of other unrelated disorders, mainly due to having less time available to treat the alternative disorders, discovering the other disorders when it is too late, complexity of having multiple disorders, or the tendency by health practitioners to identify and focus on the most prevalent condition, ignoring the rest (Reif et al, 2011). Studies related to drug abuse have come up with several theories that try to explain the reason behind such high prevalence in substance abuse. Bohnert, Bradshaw & Latkin (2010) explains two theories that best this trend. The social influence theory suggests that by individuals observing substance abuse by their peers, they will tend to enhance their substance abuse trends to correspond to their friends. On the other hand, the social network theory considers and near the people with whom an individual has close social interactions, and how these interactions affect the individual’s behaviors in substance abuse. Therefore, considering the above statistics and trends in substance abuse, there is a growing problem among the adult population related to substance abuse mainly alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine and others. This proposal aims at facilitating self-management and recovery training (SMART) in a group of addicts, by helping them to treat their addiction cases by sharing experiences, hope, and strengths regarding their addiction cases based on the 12 steps and traditions; honesty ,faith, integrity, surrender, soul searching, acceptance, willingness, humility, maintenance, forgiveness, service and making contact. ii. Definition of words Adult; anyone above 18 years old, substance; any drug which may be alcohol, tobacco, marijuana etc., abuse; uncontrolled taking of the above substances in large amounts to an extent that it affects the health of the individual negatively through addiction. II. Rationale for the Group III. Conceptual Framework The study is aimed at facilitating self-management and recovery training (SMART) in a group of working adult addicts. The use of the group will contribute to knowledge regarding drug abuse among young and middle age working adults. The study will involve a sample size of 50 adults between 18 and 60 years from both genders, who are currently using any type of drug; these may be alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana among others. The study will be carried out for a period of three months in a closed group setting. The group members will be screened before the study; an inclusion criterion will be applied to ensure the respondents are evenly distributed within the age specified. Members will be selected randomly and screened whether they meet the above conditions; the screening approach will ensure only active drug takers will be involved in the study, must be within the age groups and, currently working in any type of employment (self-employed, formal and informal employment). This will involve the use of a brief questionnaire to decide if a person meets the inclusion criteria. All those who will have met the study requirements will then be requested to participate in the study willingly, and will be completely informed on the purpose of the research, its aims, and objectives, and their roles and responsibilities in the study. The closed group will mean that members who opt to join will be requested to cooperate until the end of the group without any withdrawal. The study sessions will involve observations, interviews, communication and discussion among the group members regarding their drug addiction history. The facilitator of the study will be required to have extensive knowledge in the field of research and research ethics, to comply with the requirements in such a study. The facilitator in addition has to have some knowledge regarding drug use and addiction to guide the group members in various self-managed therapies, noting how they respond and the effectiveness of such therapies in self-management addiction treatment. Such a person will have to be non-aggressive, patient, and tactful and experienced in public relations, as they will be directly in contact with the SMART group. IV. Group Evaluation and Termination V. References Bohnert, A. S. B., Bradshaw, C.P., & Latkin, C.A. (2009, Jul. 01). A social network perspective on heroin and cocaine use among adults: evidence of bidirectional influences. Addiction, 104, 1210-1218. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02615.x. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=676734e4-b10e-46a1-afc1- 9c0ae31230e7%40sessionmgr110&vid=2&hid=116 Galea, S., Nandi, A., Vlahov, D. (2004, Mar. 08). The Social Epidemiology of Substance use. Epidemiology Review, 26 (1), 36-52. doi: 10.1093/epirev/mxh007. Retrieved from http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/36.full#content-block Islam, N., & Rahman, S. (2012, Jun. 01). Improved treatment of nicotine addiction and emerging pulmonary drug delivery. Drug Discoveries & Therapeutics, 6(3), 123-132. doi: 10.5582/ddt.2012.v6.3.123. Retrieved from https://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=11&hid=23&sid=0882062e- 0507-45ad-83b1-0bd4e571956a%40sessionmgr114 Reif, S., Larson, M.J., Cheng, D.M., Allensworth-Davies, D., Samet, J. & Saitz, R. (2011, Oct. 18). Chronic disease and recent addiction treatment utilization among alcohol and drug dependent adults. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, 6(28), 1-10. doi: 10.1186/177-597X-6- 28. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3220629/ VI Appendixes Read More