Disorders & Drug Users Introduc

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2003) reports that about 8.3 percent of the population of people in the United States who are 12 years of age or older use illicit drugs. In addition, an estimated 120 million Americans aged 12 years of age or older use alcohol, while approximately 71.5 million Americans (30.4 percent) use tobacco products. Regarding usage, the American Psychiatric Association (2000) refers to substance dependency and substance abuse as substance use disorders.

Further, Davidson, Neale and Kring (2003) report that in many cases, maladaptive patterns of behavior associated with substance dependency and/or substance abuse have underlying psychopathological issues, dysfunction or disorders. However, the question can be asked as to whether merely using drugs without the development of dependency or abuse patterns also suggestive of an underlying disorder.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the literature in order to determine whether drug use (as opposed to substance abuse or dependency) is an indicator of an underlying psychological or emotional disorder. To this end, the paper will examine the arguments supporting the claim that usage alone is indicative of an underlying disorder (the pros) as well as the arguments against the claim (the cons).

What, if any, are the reasons to believe that an individual who merely uses drugs may have a disorder? According to Bonomo (2003), substance use has been extensively stud

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toms before the onset of substance use or the development of a substance-related disorder, and sustained psychiatric symptoms during lengthy periods of abstinence all suggest a primary psychiatric illness that predated the substance abuse problem and was likely to have been a motivating factor in initial drug use, and continued usage prior to the development of either an abuse or dependency problem. Noting that most people first begin to use drugs in adolescence, Brook, Cohen and Brook (1998) put it all together. According to the authors, drug use in adolescence is often a precursor for later drug abuse or dependence, and this is typically because these young people are in the initial stages of dealing with a developing psychopathology. Thus, the authors caution that when clinicians learn that an adolescent is using drugs, they should be required to look for signs or symptoms that demonstrate the beginnings of early psychopathology in both early- and late-adolescent substance users. Cons On the con side of the argument, it has been reported that people take drugs for a variety of reasons, not all of them being underlying psychoemotional problems, issues, or disorders. For example, McDowell and Spitz (1999) report that bioneur

Category: Psychology - D