Substance Abuse in Adolescents: Understanding Attitudes and Knowledge

Drug abuse is defined as the use of mood-modifying substances in dosage many times more than those used medically and over lengths of time impacting negatively on individuals, society, and family. In other words, it refers to the intemperance and persistence of self-administration and the wrong use of drugs without regard to accepted medical practice. This book focuses on effects of drugs on adolescents. It first and foremost reviews various concepts of drug abuse; it further highlights factors that give rise to this deviant behavior including peer group influence, experimentation, social acceptance factor, idleness, success in examination, self-medication among others. Commonly used drugs among adolescents include amphetamines, caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, and heroin. Some strategies are used for mitigating drug abuse such as counselor-parent–family–relationships, individual counseling, and group counseling among other strategies should be deployed in solving drug abuse problems among adolescents.