Psychiatric Clinics in the United Arab Emirates - Thesis Example

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
As such, mental health has developed into a distinguished medical profession, which aims to identify, treat, and prevent mental disorders in people so that they engage in productive lives with minimal disruptions.

Physician Assistants are healthcare professionals who have been working in the field of psychiatry since 1975, however, they only represent 1% of total practicing physical assistants (Ginther, Woydziak & Quigley, 2009). This suggests that the area of psychiatry may be undermanned by healthcare professionals sufficiently qualified to deal with mental health issues. Indeed, while psychiatry appeared as a medical specialty in the 1800s, with its focus being mainly dealing with institutional confined individuals who were afflicted by severe disorders, with no regard to those who experienced minimal mental impairment in their everyday functioning, it changed rapidly in the 20th century with the advent of theories in psychology, particularly those advanced by Sigmund Freud, a renowned neurologist. In the 1950s, medications for treating mental health cases debuted, while the 1980s saw the radical revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of mental disorders, renowned as DSM-III, whereby the focus shifted from cause to symptom-based approach to psychiatric problems, and pharmaceutical innovation ensued.

Regarding the professional training environment, psychiatry was originally added to the general curriculum for training physician assistants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1974, and was adopted by subsequent medical and nursing schools thereafter in order to familiarize students with different psychiatric patient presentations. In 1998, a formal mental health-training program was developed which consisted of course work as well as one-on-one training with a supervising psychiatrist. Approaches to practice advanced with physician assistant students being trained in effective psychiatric interviewing techniques, psychopharmacology, and recognizing specific psychiatric disorders.

Psychiatry brings many formidable legacy issues into the emerging healthcare environment and the challenges it poses. To this end, a greater understanding of the impact of psychiatric illnesses and substance use disorders on total healthcare costs by the government, employers, and the public will be needed going forward due to the increasing prevalence of mental health issues. Notably, The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) provides significant potential leverage to enable transformation on an equitable basis for the populations with mental health and substance use disorders.

In all European countries, there are institutions for mental health care and addiction treatment. In many cases, relatively independent of psychiatry or mental health care, separate institutions for addiction treatment have been established in most countries in Europe

Patients with historical addiction try to find clinics from where they can obtain medicine that affects their central nervous system in an official manner in a bid to circumvent the drugs laws and avoid association with drug misuse. Others are able to access prescription medication that they are addicted to through online outlets, where public scrutiny is minimal and anonymity is ensured.

Tramadol is a centrally-acting analgesic with weak m-opioid agonist properties and weak inhibition of norepinephrine and serotonin reuptake. It has been marketed in Germany without controls by Grunenthal since 1977, where it has been one of the most widely prescribed analgesics (Adams, et al., 2006)

1.2 Statement of the Problem
The risk of addiction to substances is real and afflicts millions of people worldwide. Addiction makes people develop a dependency on substances to a level in which they are able to undertake normal daily functioning in addition to presenting a heavy burden on the resources allocated to healthcare that would be otherwise used to deal with other health challenges, particularly considering that addiction is preventable and treatable as well. The addiction to prescription medications is particularly worrisome and many countries are endeavoring to not only control access to prescribed drugs that are addictive but also to develop approaches of alleviating addiction problems among their populace.