Motivational And Personality Factors Associated With Adolescent Alcohol Tobacco And Marijuana Use

Significant changes have taken place in the policy landscape surrounding cannabis legalization, production, and use. During the past 20 years, 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis and/or cannabidiol (a component of cannabis) for medical conditions or retail sales at the state level and 4 states have legalized both the medical and recreational use of cannabis. These landmark changes in policy have impacted cannabis use patterns and perceived levels of risk. However, despite this changing landscape, evidence regarding the short- and long-term health effects of cannabis use remains elusive. While a myriad of studies have examined cannabis use in all its various forms, often these research conclusions are not appropriately synthesized, translated for, or communicated to policy makers, health care providers, state health officials, or other stakeholders who have been charged with influencing and enacting policies, procedures, and laws related to cannabis use. Unlike other controlled substances such as alcohol or tobacco, no accepted standards for safe use or appropriate dose are available to help guide individuals as they make choices regarding the issues of if, when, where, and how to use cannabis safely and, in regard to therapeutic uses, effectively. Shifting public sentiment, conflicting and impeded scientific research, and legislative battles have fueled the debate about what, if any, harms or benefits can be attributed to the use of cannabis or its derivatives, and this lack of aggregated knowledge has broad public health implications. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids provides a comprehensive review of scientific evidence related to the health effects and potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis. This report provides a research agendaâ€"outlining gaps in current knowledge and opportunities for providing additional insight into these issuesâ€"that summarizes and prioritizes pressing research needs.

The medical use of marijuana is surrounded by a cloud of social, political, and religious controversy, which obscures the facts that should be considered in the debate. This book summarizes what we know about marijuana from evidence-based medicineâ€"the harm it may do and the relief it may bring to patients. The book helps the reader understand not only what science has to say about medical marijuana but also the logic behind the scientific conclusions. Marijuana and Medicine addresses the science base and the therapeutic effects of marijuana use for medical conditions such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. It covers marijuana's mechanism of action, acute and chronic effects on health and behavior, potential adverse effects, efficacy of different delivery systems, analysis of the data about marijuana as a gateway drug, and the prospects for developing cannabinoid drugs. The book evaluates how well marijuana meets accepted standards for medicine and considers the conclusions of other blue-ribbon panels. Full of useful facts, this volume will be important to anyone interested in informed debate about the medical use of marijuana: advocates and opponents as well as policymakers, regulators, and health care providers.

Substance use and substance use disorders (SUDs) have been documented in a number of cultures since the beginnings of recorded time and represent major societal concerns in the present day. The Oxford Handbook of Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders provides comprehensive reviews of key areas of inquiry into the fundamental nature of substance use and SUDs, their features, causes, consequences, course, treatment, and prevention. It is clear that understanding these various aspects of substance use and SUDs requires a multidisciplinary perspective that considers the pharmacology of drugs of abuse, genetic variation in these acute and chronic effects, and psychological processes in the context of the interpersonal and cultural contexts. Comprising two volumes, this Handbook also highlights a range of opportunities and challenges facing those interested in the basic understanding of the nature of these phenomena and novel approaches to assess, prevent, and treat these conditions with the goal of reducing the enormous burden these problems place on our global society. Chapters in Volume 1 cover the historical and cultural contexts of substance use and its consequences, its epidemiology and course, etiological processes from the perspective of neuropharmacology, genetics, personality, development, motivation, and the interpersonal and larger social environment. Chapters in Volume 2 cover major health and social consequences of substance involvement, psychiatric comorbidity, assessment, and interventions. Each chapter highlights key issues in the respective topic area and raises unanswered questions for future research. All chapters are authored by leading scholars in each topic. The level of coverage is sufficiently deep to be of value to both trainees and established scientists and clinicians interested in an evidenced-based approach.

Adolescents undergo rapid physical, psychological and social developmental changes that result in management challenges, communication issues, patterns of disease and symptom presentations that are different from children or adults. This can be challenging for health professionals, who rarely have had specific training in dealing with the young people they meet in their clinical work. This ABC covers topics surrounding adolescent development, sexual behaviour and substance misuse, along with education and preventative strategies. It also features other adolescent health problems such as self-harm, eating disorders and psychosomatic presentations. This book is a valuable resource for all those who deal with adolescent patients in primary care, emergency departments, and hospital and outpatient settings.

This booklet for schools, medical personnel, and parents contains highlights from the 2012 Surgeon General's report on tobacco use among youth and teens (ages 12 through 17) and young adults (ages 18 through 25). The report details the causes and the consequences of tobacco use among youth and young adults by focusing on the social, environmental, advertising, and marketing influences that encourage youth and young adults to initiate and sustain tobacco use. This is the first time tobacco data on young adults as a discrete population have been explored in detail. The report also highlights successful strategies to prevent young people from using tobacco.

Adolescent substance abuse is the nation's #1 public health problem. It originates out of a developmental era where experimentation with the world is increasingly taking place, and where major changes in physical self and social relationships are taking place. These changes cannot be understood by any one discipline nor can they be described by focusing only on the behavioral and social problems of this age period, the characteristics of normal development, or the pharmacology and addictive potential of specific drugs. They require knowledge of the brain's systems of reward and control, genetics, psychopharmacology, personality, child development, psychopathology, family dynamics, peer group relationships, culture, social policy, and more. Drawing on the expertise of the leading researchers in this field, this Handbook provides the most comprehensive summarization of current knowledge about adolescent substance abuse. The Handbook is organized into eight sections covering the literature on the developmental context of this life period, the epidemiology of adolescent use and abuse, similarities and differences in use, addictive potential, and consequences of use for different drugs; etiology and course as characterized at different levels of mechanistic analysis ranging from the genetic and neural to the behavioural and social. Two sections cover the clinical ramifications of abuse, and prevention and intervention strategies to most effectively deal with these problems. The Handbook's last section addresses the role of social policy in framing the problem, in addressing it, and explores its potential role in alleviating it.

Motivation is key to substance use behavior change. Counselors can support clients' movement toward positive changes in their substance use by identifying and enhancing motivation that already exists. Motivational approaches are based on the principles of person-centered counseling. Counselors' use of empathy, not authority and power, is key to enhancing clients' motivation to change. Clients are experts in their own recovery from SUDs. Counselors should engage them in collaborative partnerships. Ambivalence about change is normal. Resistance to change is an expression of ambivalence about change, not a client trait or characteristic. Confrontational approaches increase client resistance and discord in the counseling relationship. Motivational approaches explore ambivalence in a nonjudgmental and compassionate way.