Substance Abuse And Mental Disorders Social Work Essay

Substance Abuse And Mental Disorders Social Work Essay Dual diagnosis between drug abuse and mental illness is very common. The two problems affect and interact with each other. The number of people diagnosed with a mental illness and substance went from 210,000 to 800,000 between the years of 1998-2003. (Druss MD, Bornemann, Fry-Johnson MD, McCombs PhD, Politzer, Rust MD, 2006) Substance abuse is the most common and clinically important dual disorder among adults with severe mental illness. Studies show that fifty percent of people with mental illness also have a substance abuse problem. (Saisan, Smith, Segal, 2010) And more than half the persons with a substance abuse diagnosis also have a diagnosable mental illness. (Saisan, Smith, Segal, 2010) Clinicians believe that mental illness and substance abuse are biologically and physiologically based. Although substance abuse and mental health disorders like depression and anxiety are closely linked, one does not directly cause the other. (Saisan, Smith, Segal, 2010) Both conditions can mirror each. PROBLEM STATEMENT: More and more people are suffering from a combination of substance abuse and mental health problems. Alcohol and/or drugs are often used to relieve the symptoms of a mental illness, side effects from their medications or just to cure symptoms they are having at the time. Alcohol and drug abuse can increase original risk for mental disorders and can make symptoms of a mental health problem worse. Substance abuse and mental illness commonly co-occur due to genetic factors, environmental factors, a brain disorder and/or a development disorders. Co-occurring disorders, two disorders or illnesses occur simultaneously in the same person, they are called dual diagnosis or co morbidity. (Topics in Brief, 2007) Treatment for this dual diagnosis has not been well designed. Clients have to go a treatment facility for mental health treatment and a different facility for substance abuse treatment. This kind of treat is not successful because this leaves the client trying to cope/manger a disorder on their own. It is almost impossible for them to manger the other disorder because if they could quit on their own they would not need treatment. It can be hard to diagnose a person with a dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse. One of the things that makes diagnose hard is denial by the patient. Substance abuse and mental disorders commonly co-occur because of overlapping genetic vulnerabilities, overlapping environmental triggers like stress, involvement of similar brain regions, and drug abuse and mental illness are developmental disorders. (Topics in Brief, 2007) Having a dual diagnosis put a person at greater risk for relapse. Violence and suicide attempts are also more prevalent among the dually diagnosed population. BACKGROUND: The problem of dual diagnosis became clinically clear in the early 1980s. (Drake R. P., 2001) Substance abuse and mental illness hinders your ability to function, handle life and have a healthy social life. Mental illnesses are mental conditions that disrupt a persons thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. The World Health Organization has reported that four of the 10 leading causes of disability in the US are mental disorders. (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2010) Some of the major and the most common mental illness that occur with substance abuse are manic depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, generalize anxiety disorder and antisocial personality disorder. It is reported that about 57.7 million Americans experience a mental health disorder in a given year. (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2010) Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not need to sustain life or to make it better. One in four US deaths can be attributed to alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drug use. (Innovatory Combating Substance Abuse, 2010) The commonly abused drugs by people with a mental illness are alcohol, cocaine and/or marijuana. Substance abuse complicates some aspect of care for a person with a mental disorder. It provides challenges for the counselor to engage the individual in treatment. About 50% of individuals with severe mental disorders are affected by substance abuse. (Saisan, Smith, Segal, 2010) Thirty-seven percent of alcohol abusers and 53% of drug abusers also have at least on serious mental illness. (Saisan, Smith, Segal, 2010) See the chart below. The risk of developing a drug abuse problem while having a disorder goes as high as 15.5% for antisocial personality disorder and as low as 02.1% for phobias. The mental health problems that most commonly co-occur with substance abuse are depression, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder. (Saisan, Smith, Segal, 2010) When a person has a dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental illness the clinician has to determine what are the symptoms/signs of the substance abuse and what are the symptoms/signs are from the mental illness. Disorders with Increased Risk of Drug Abuse Disorder Risk Antisocial personality disorder 15.5% Manic episode 14.5% Schizophrenia 10.1% Panic disorder 04. 3% Major depressive episode 04.1% Obsessive-compulsive disorder 03.4% Phobias 02.1% Source: National Institute of Mental Health. (Drug Abuse and Mental Illness Fast Facts, 2006) At least 60% of people fighting substance abuse or mental illness are fighting both at the same time. (Bouchex, 2007) Patients with mood, anxiety or drug disorders are about twice as likely to be diagnosed with the other as well. Figure 1 (Topics in Brief, 2007) The prevalence of these dual diagnoses does not mean that one condition caused the other, even if one appeared first. The high rates show the need for better treatment and treatment centers able to deal with both at the same time. WORKING DIAGNOSIS: Substance abuse can cause mental disorders due to the fact that, drug abuse can cause a mental illness, mental illness can lead to drug abuse, drug abuse and mental disorders are both caused by other common risk factors all three can contribute to the establishment of specific dual diagnosis of mental disorders and addiction. (Topics in Brief, 2007) FRAMEWORK/METHOD OF ANALYSIS: I began my search using Google and searched using the terms Substance abuse and Mental Illness. This resulted in nine articles that were relevant to my topic all of which I used as references. I then went to the Pub Med Central database and searched using the term substance abuse and mental illness and found many articles. I used four of those articles as references. The other references were found on website such as National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Drug Intelligence Center. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (LITERATURE REVIEW): This review looks at progress made in understanding the relation between drug abuse and mental illness. Volkow found that the relationship between substance abuse and mental illness is likely to reflect common contributing factors and brain substrates. (Volkow, 2001) One of the main factors substance abuse and mental illness have in common is stress. A question that still remains is the role that drug abuse has on causing psychosis in individuals with no previous psychiatric histories. Stimulant drugs induce psychosis because they increase extracellular dopamine concentration in the brain. However it does not explain why psychosis can continue after the stimulant drug is no longer present in the brain. Regier, et al, broke his study down into specific mental disorders. This review found that of people with schizophrenia forty-seven percent has some form of substance abuse problem. People diagnosed with schizophrenia have a 4 times as likely then people who do not have schizophrenia to have a substance abuse problem. (Regier, et al., 1990) The odds for people diagnosed with anxiety disorders to have a substance abuse proplem were more than fourteen percent. It is believe that substance abuse may trigger mental illness in vulnerable individuals. Evidence show a complex explanation in which well-known risk factors- such as poor cognitive function, anxiety, deficient interpersonal skills, social isolation, poverty, and lack of structured activities combined to render people with mental illnesses particularly vulnerable to alcohol and drug abuse. (Drake, 2009) People that already have a mental disorder probably appear to be extremely sensitive to the effects of alcohol and other drugs, due to having a form of brain disorder. Drake, et al, explains the term dual diagnosis as misleading because people with a dual diagnosis are diverse and tend to have multiple illnesses rather than just two illnesses. Drake discusses how researchers have established some identical finding. First, co-occurrence is common. Second, dual diagnosis is associated with a variety of negative outcomes, including higher rates of relapse, hospitalization, violence, incarceration, homeless and serious infections such as HIV and hepatitis. (Drake R. P., 2001) Third, the mental health and substance abuse treatment system delivers fragmented and ineffective care. RESTATEMENT OF WORKING DIAGNOSIS (Hypothesis): There is evidence that substance abuse can lead to a mental disorder but also a mental disorder can also lead to a substance abuse, it is not known which comes first. Like the saying which comes first the chicken or the egg. It is said that having one of the diagnosis makes you vulnerable to the other. MANAGERIAL/POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS: Why people who are having a mental disorder are so prone to drug abuse raises a lot of questions due to the limited research done on the topic. The research so far is inconsistent and has failed to address a number of issues. There is a need for more research as well as more treatment center that are equipped to deal with dual diagnosis. The patient has two brain diseases that influence one another, and which both need treatment, at the same time. This is when dual diagnosis treatment is need. It is an approach used by clinicians to treat individuals affected by two co-occurring or coexisting conditions simultaneously. Dual diagnosis affects a person physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally and socially. There is a need for an all-inclusive approach that identifies both disorders, evaluates both disorders, and at the same time treats both disorders. Many treatment centers now only treat one or the other. Substance abuse treatment are not recommended or designed to handle a ment al illness and vice versa. Awareness about the problem needs to be made public, so that people know the signs to look for and how to approach the person about their disorder correctly. Patients also need to be aware of the help that is available to them and support groups like Dual recovery Anonymous. There also needs to be better training for the counselors and physicians so that they will be able to better and accurately diagnosis patients. For recovery to be successful you must treats a clients addiction and mental health problem.

Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis :: Essays Papers

Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis Speech Recognition. Speech Recognition is the process by which a computer maps an acoustic speech signal to text. It is different that speech understanding which is the process by which a computer maps an acoustic speech signal to some form of abstract meaning of the speech. This process depends on the speaker, and how he speaks the language. There are three different systems for the speaker. * Speaker dependent system. * Speaker independent system. * Speaker adaptive system. Speaker Dependent System. A speaker dependent system is developed to operate for a single speaker. These systems are usually easier to develop, cheaper to buy and more accurate, but not as flexible as speaker adaptive or speaker independent systems. Speaker Independent System. A speaker independent system is developed to operate for any speaker of a particular type like American English, or any other kind of English Language. These systems are the most difficult to develop, most expensive and accuracy is lower than speaker dependent systems. However, they are more flexible. Speaker Adaptive System. A speaker adaptive system is developed to adapt its operation to the characteristics of new speakers. It's difficulty lies somewhere between speaker independent and speaker dependent systems. There are many things that effects the speaker systems. For example The size of vocabulary of a speech recognition system affects the complexity, processing requirements and the accuracy of the system. Some applications only require a few words like numbers, others require very large dictionaries (e.g. dictation machines). There are no established definitions for the size of vocabulary. To make it easy to understand we can say that :- small vocabulary - tens of words medium vocabulary - hundreds of words large vocabulary - thousands of words very-large vocabulary - tens of thousands of words. As well as the size of vocabulary effects the speaker system, the way on speaking this words effects too. There are two different ways of speech. continuous speech or isolated-word speech. Isolated-word Speech:- An isolated-word system operates on single words at a time - requiring a pause between saying each word. This is the simplest form of recognition to perform because the end points are easier to find and the pronunciation of a word tends not affect others. Thus, because the occurrences of words are more consistent they are easier to recognize. Continuous Speech:- A continuous speech system operates on speech in which words are connected together, i.e. not separated by pauses.

Costs and Manufacturing Overhead

1. How much overhead cost would be saved by outsourcing production of muffler-exhaust systems and oil pans if a. Overhead costs were entirely fixed costs?$0 would be saved because fixed costs do not affected by reduced number of labor caused by outsourcing. b. Overhead costs were entirely variable costs? (How is volume of activity measured at Bridgeton? Why is volume not measured by simply counting units produced?) All of them would be saved. If using numbers in 1988 for estimate, (5,766,000+6,532,000)*434% = $53,373,320 would be saved.Bridgeton accumulates all manufacturing overhead costs into one cost pool, and use direct labor dollar cost as the allocation measure to apportion the overhead costs in the cost pool.Unlike direct labor and direct material costs that can be traced to specific products, overhead costs could be administrative and manufacturing related so that not all of them are involved in ACF’s production. Therefore, there isn’t a high degree of correlati on between the units produced and the amount of manufacturing overhead used.2. How much overhead cost do you think Bridgeton and the consultants implicitly assumed would be saved by outsourcing muffler-exhaust systems and oil pans? They expect all overhead specific to product line of Muffler – Exhaust systems and oil pans would be saved, which is ($5,766,000+6,532,000)*434% = $533,733,20 (using 1988 data for estimate).3. Calculate the overhead allocation rate for each of the model years 1988 through 1990. Are the changes since 1987 in overhead allocation rates significant? Why have these changes occurred? a) divide total overhead ($) by total direct labor ($) showed in Exh.2 to get overhead rate. | 1987| 1988| 1989| 1990|Overhead Rate| 437% = 107,954/24,682| 434% = 109,890/25,294| 577% = 78,157/13,537| 563% = 79,393/14,102| Costs and Manufacturing Overhead Bridgeton Industries Case Assignment Questions1. How much overhead cost would be saved by outsourcing production of muffler-exhaust systems and oil pans if a. Overhead costs were entirely fixed costs?$0 would be saved because fixed costs do not affected by reduced number of labor caused by outsourcing. b. Overhead costs were entirely variable costs? (How is volume of activity measured at Bridgeton?Why is volume not measured by simply counting units produced?) All of them would be saved. If using numbers in 1988 for estimate, (5,766,000+6,532,000)*434% = $53,373,320 would be saved.Bridgeton accumulates all manufacturing overhead costs into one cost pool, and use direct labor dollar cost as the allocation measure to apportion the overhead costs in the cost pool.Unlike direct labor and direct material costs that can be traced to specific products, overhead costs could be administrative and manufacturing related so that not all of them are involved in ACF’s production. Therefore, there isn’t a high degree of correlation between the units produced and the amount of manufacturing overhead used.2. How much overhead cost do you think Bridgeton and the consultants implicitly assumed would be saved by outsourcing muffler-exhaust systems and oil pans? They expect all overhead specific to product line of Muffler – Exhaust systems and oil pans would be saved, which is ($5,766,000+6,532,000)*434% = $533,733,20 (using 1988 data for estimate).3. Calculate the overhead allocation rate for each of the model years 1988 through 1990. Are the changes since 1987 in overhead allocation rates significant? Why have these changes occurred? a) divide total overhead ($) by total direct labor ($) showed in Exh.2 to get overhead rate. | 1987| 1988| 1989| 1990|Overhead Rate| 437% = 107,954/24,682| 434% = 109,890/25,294| 577% = 78,157/13,537| 563% = 79,393/14,102|

of mice and men1 essays

of mice and men1 essays In John Steinbecks novel, OF MICE AND MEN, his theme of following your dreams and not being selfish was very clear. By opening the story with two dominant characters, George and Lennie, talking about their dreams to by a piece of land and build there dream place he showed us a great relationship between two friends. As the story continues they begin to carry out their plan. George and Lennie are going to a farm to look for work. During the interview the boss notices that George is answering all of Lennies questions, and this makes the boss suspicious. George explains that Lennie is not to bright. When the two friends are back in their bunk they meet Curley and his wife. Throughout the entire story Geprge and Lennie are continually discussing their dream plans; they have already begun to save money. Because Lennie likes to pet soft things Slim gives Lennie a puppy. Lennie is extremely large compared to the small puppy and George makes Lennie put the puppy down for fear that he might hurt it. Carlson Finally convinces Candy to kill his old blind dog. While Candy is waiting for this to happen George and Lennie then begin to once again discuss their dream. Curley decides to get in on the action. Curley later hits Lennie for laughing at him. Lennie is must bigger than Curly and ends up crushing Curleys hand. The group decides to say that Curley hurt his hand in a machine so that no one will get fired. Lennie later goes and visits Crook, a black man who normally does not associate will white men. Crook eventually invites Lennie into his shed and Lennie shares his dream plan with Crook, who decides he wants in on the plan but only because he will become lonely. Curleys wife then enters the scene and threatens Candy, which causes Crook to become scared and decide to not be part of the dream plan. After Lennie went home Curleys wife came to visit him and disco ...

Summary In Praise of the F Word Essays

Summary In Praise of the F Word Essays Summary In Praise of the F Word Paper Summary In Praise of the F Word Paper Summary: â€Å"In Praise of the ‘F’ Word† In this article, â€Å"In praise of the ‘F’ word†, Marry Sherry makes the point that in order to help kids do their school work and get their education; they must be threatened with failing. Before she started teaching her class, she would blame the poor academic skills our kids have today on drugs, divorce and other impediments to concentration necessary for doing well in school. She had an experience with her sons grade 12 English teacher. The teacher told Marry that because her son was talking in class, she wasn’t going to move him since he was a senior but was going to flunk him. At first she was a little put off by the fact that the teacher was going to take sure a drastic measure, but after a moment of thinking she realized that the teacher was making a reasonable decision. Marry goes on to talk about passing students who haven’t mastered school work cheat themselves, as well as their future employers who expect them to have those basic skills from high school. Their excuse for not having those skills is that kids can’t learn if they come from bad environments, but really the reason is that kids don’t put the right amount of school work into their lives as they should. Students that attend night classes are more determined to get their education and they make it their number one priority. Marry really believes in using flunking to help motivate kids to work harder because passing kids who aren’t actually doing the work are just going to suffer in the long run. Sherry, Marry â€Å"In Praise of the ‘F’ Word† Developing Reading Versatility. 2003: Page 200-201

Compare and contrast the tradional marker and new marker of liver Essay

Compare and contrast the tradional marker and new marker of liver fibrosis - Essay Example But is is fraught with several disadvantages and recent novel methods claim to overcome the disadvantages associated with liver biopsy. In this research article, both traditional and novel methods of liver biopsy evaluation are discussed. Novel assessment strategies include serological assays, imaging methods and genetic studies. There are 2 types of biochemical markers and they are direct and indirect. Direct markers evaluate for fibrolysis and fibrogenesis. There is evidence to show that there does exists a good correlation between different biochemical markers, suggesting the fact that they investigate similar process. While the role of biochemical markers are studied and many researchers have opined that they are better than liver biopsy, currently liver biopsy still enjoys the first line investigation method for diagnosis and staging of liver fibrosis. Imaging studies and genetic studies are also considered useful, but in research stage. Excessive accumulation of various extrace llular matrix proteins like collagen is known as liver fibrosis. The condition arises because of chronic damage to the liver due to one or more causes like chronic hepatitis C infection, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and alcohol abuse. It has the potential to progress to advanced liver conditions like liver failure, cirrhosis and portal hypertension, requiring liver transplantation (Bataller and Brenner, 2005). As of now, there is no standard treatment for liver fibrosis. Though some treatments have been found effective among rodents, they have not been practical to apply on humans because of the difficulties associated with performing serial biopsies to evaluate and ascertain the changes associated with treatment accurately and also because of the fact that humans are much less sensitive towards antifibrotic treatments when compared to rodents (Bataller and Brenner, 2005). Currently, the most effective treatment for liver biopsy appears to be removal of the offending agent and the only curative approach for those with cirrhosis and complications is liver transplantation which improves not only the quality of life, but also the survival (Bataller and Brenner, 2005). Management of liver fibrosis is mainly based on the accuracy of the degree of liver fibrosis. Those with chronic liver disease need to be frequently evaluated for detection of liver fibrosis in early stages. Traditionally, liver biopsy was considered to be the "gold standard" test for ascertaining and evaluation liver biopsy. However, this test is fraught with several limitations and risks because of the invasive nature of the procedure. Recent investigations like biochemical tests, liver magnetic resonance imaging and genetic evaluation are non-invasive and overcome the disadvantages of liver biopsy. However, some experts continue to employ liver biopsy for evaluation of liver biopsy arguing that it is a more accurate assessment strategy. In this research article, both traditional and modern metho ds of liver fibrosis evaluation will be compared and discussed through review of suitable literature. A brief overview of the pathogenesis of the disease will be

Health implications related to the personal health and wellbeing of Essay

Health implications related to the personal health and wellbeing of individual patients in hospital and domestic settings - Essay Example My immediate guess was that both chemotherapy and laser therapy had affected his body metabolism to a certain extent. He was a patient very concerned about his appearance. Being just 27 years of age and unmarried, he wanted to look smart all the time. He recalled the fact that he had a very stylish hair style prior to undergoing chemotherapy. He lamented stroking the few remaining strands of hair remaining in his otherwise bald head. The patient said he used to look in the mirror often and was very proud of his neatly combed hair earlier, but now he was devastated by the figure looking back at him when looking in the mirror. According to him his hair style enhanced his personality and every one used to comment on it. I knew that he was visibly shaken by his hair loss and this was affecting him psychologically. He asked me whether his hair would grow again. Due to his hair loss he told me that his confidence was shattered and did not know how to face society once he was discharged from hospital. Chemotherapy treatment often causes hair loss basically because the cells in the hair follicles grow fast (Baker, 1996). Hair loss would not be a permanent issue and the hair will grow back once the patient's treatment has ended. In fact chemotherapy damages fast growing cells, however all drugs will not cause hair loss and in some scenarios it just cause thinning and others cause dramatic hair loss including the body hair and eye brows (Bandura, 1998). Moreover, different people have different tolerances to the drugs and occasionally, some people lose their hair when it is not expected and sometimes in other cases no hair loss occurs when it is expected. The patient did not understand how certain drugs produced negative side effects in the long run, when I told him that certain chemical combinations coming from different drugs would have caused his hair roots to destabilize he thought that I was talking about some alien disease. When I explained this to him and said that his hair loss was temporarily he was much relieved and satisfied. Finally a smile appeared on his hitherto gloomy face. He thanked me a lot for enlightening him about his hair loss. I was much satisfied when a smile finally appeared on his face. Entry two This week I had an encounter with a patient who complained of a swelling in the neck and in the groin and the legs. But he was experiencing no pain. He also complained of an early feeling of fullness of the stomach and recurrent abdominal pain. He was sixteen years of age and had been an active member of the school soccer team and other sports sometime back. But now he was thin and frail and has been under medication for some time. He lamented that he was unable to go to school and take part in soccer practices which he loved so much. He had been a boy of robust build but of late has lost a lot of weight and said he was having a feeling of 'lack of energy'. This apart he experienced chills, fevers and night sweats on a regular basis. Being the only child in the family, he was the apple in the eye of his parents. He wanted to do all that he can to make his parents proud. Though not a very bright student in his studies, he was very keen on sports and said that his ambition was to