Causes and correlates of adolescent drug abuse and implications for treatment

Caring for the involuntarily hospitalized adolescent: the issue of power in the nurse-patient relationship

TOPIC

The power relations between involuntarily hospitalized adolescents and their caregivers from the viewpoint of theory development in nursing and the concept of medicalization.

PURPOSE

To contribute to the development of nursing theories that can guide nursing care of involuntarily hospitalized adolescents by examining the power relations between the adolescents and their caregivers.

SOURCES

Published literature in medical sociology, and nursing and psychiatric ethics. Nursing and psychiatric literature, in which Michel Foucault's theories are used to explicate the disciplinary power of psychiatry.

CONCLUSIONS

To empower involuntarily hospitalized adolescents nurses must both recognize the inevitable power imbalance and seek guidance from the egalitarian ideals of nursing. Nurses can draw from postmodern thinkers who dismiss the idea that one theory can explain human relationships.

Are reasons for the first use of drugs and family circumstances predictors of future use patterns?

The objective of this study was to investigate whether the level of drug dependence in adolescents can be predicted by any of the following factors: the reasons to which the first use or non-use of drugs is attributed, living arrangements, economic situation, family history of alcohol use, or school delay. 213 Brazilian adolescents were classified according to DSM-III-R criteria as: 71 non-drug-dependent users (Group 1), 71 lightly/moderately dependent users (Group 2), and 71 severely dependent users (Group 3). Logistic regression identified the following predictors of current drug use patterns: low economic level, school delay, living only with the mother, having a poor/bad family relationship, and "influence of friends," "pleasure seeking," or "curiosity" as reasons for initial drug use. Among Groups 1 and 2, "never felt like trying," "fear of dying from an overdose," and "religious reasons" were the main reasons for not using other drugs. School delay and troubled family relationships were important predictors of current drug dependence, and "pleasure seeking" was a prominent reason for initial drug use. This suggests that drug use prevention should not simply focus on reducing drug availability but also on helping young people to develop good family/peer relationships and finding healthy ways to enjoy themselves.