Background: Around 33-50% who attend treatment for substance use disorder (SUD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) have a history of trauma. Experiencing trauma can lead to psychological disorders, difficulties with emotional regulation and dissociation. SUD and AUD can be chronic, relapsing disorders and understanding what individual factors affect addiction has important implications for treatment. Objective: The systematic review was interested in whether alexithymia affects abstinence after relapse prevention treatment (both psychological and pharmacological). The review was also interested in whether alexithymia is a stable trait after relapse prevention treatment (both psychological and pharmacological) as measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. The research study investigates the relationships between trauma, dissociation, alexithymia, emotional regulation and SUD, AUD and polysubstance use. There has been little research looking at the relationships between these variables and how they compare in different types of substance use. It was hypothesised that patients with poly-substance addiction will have higher incidents of trauma, dissociation, alexithymia and poorer emotional regulation when compared to alcohol and drug dependence alone. Methods: A systematic search of articles published between January 1989 - January 2017 was carried out following the Cochrane (2008) guidelines. PSYCHInfo, Medline and Cinahl were the key databases searched. Papers were quality assessed to identify strengths and weaknesses. The research study is a qualitative, cross-sectional design that involved ninety-one AUD, SUD and poly-substance use participants who were attending outpatient NHS addiction services. They were asked to complete questionnaires assessing trauma, dissociation, alexithymia and emotional regulation. Results: The systematic review found twelve articles that related to the review questions. The systematic review found alexithymia did not impact on abstinence and there was no difference between abstinence after treatment between low and high alexithymic groups. There were mixed results for whether alexithymia score changes after relapse prevention treatment. Overall, the results suggest that alexithymia is relatively stable across SUD and AUD after relapse prevention treatment. The empirical study found that there is no difference between type of addiction and trauma, alexithymia and emotional regulation. People with polysubstance misuse reported significantly higher levels of dissociation than the other two groups. Multiple regression was conducted on the full data set and it was found that emotional regulation, alexithymia and dissociation were able to predict trauma in alcohol, drug and polysubstance users. Conclusions: The systematic review found that despite the assumption that people with alexithymia have higher rates of relapse and attrition this is not the case. Alexithymia has no impact on treatment outcome. The review also found that CBT was identified as an effective relapse prevention treatment for people with alexithymia. The research paper highlighted that the type of substance used by people who have experienced trauma may not be as important as previously thought. Also, understanding that poor emotional regulation, alexithymia and dissociation commonly co-occur with trauma so it may be important to screen for this when treating people with trauma who have co-morbid addictions.

The title of the thesis is The Case Study of Impact of Alcohol Addiction and it follows the series of life situations which occurred during a relatively short period of time in the case of a man who was abstaining for a long time. The subject of this thesis is a study of people with this disease who may be more susceptible to the pitfalls of life, and therefore cannot adequately respond to the crisis. The aim of this thesis was to find out whether an abstaining person could withstand the adversity and if not what field of human life was threatened. The main aim of the thesis was to outline the period shortly after being released from work. The introduction of the theoretical part deals with the definition of expressions such as alcohol addiction, theories and factors of addiction. Other part of the thesis deals with the consequence of long-term alcohol drinking and that both somatic, mental and also social which the long-term alcohol addiction brings. The conclusion of the theoretical part is supplemented with the interpretation of expressions such as a relapse or a recurrence and further it deals with issue of the failure to comply with abstinence together with the recommendation of possible ways how to refuse the alcohol. The empirical part of the thesis is processed by the method of quantitative research by means of questioning the method of narrative interview. The data was elaborated in the form of grounded theory method and afterwards it was evaluated by means of axial coding and all was divided into four time periods through which the client went and by which he was affected. The main research question was How can the change of job influence the mental and health conditions and what is the risk of relapse in the case of an abstaining person? Individual research questions were three. The first one related to observation of the change of managing of life situations during the period of the therapy and shortly after the therapy. The second question applies to the issue of managing of life situations which occurred within resocialization at work and the respondent found here a new way which means he found a new job and a residence outside his home within resocialization. The last research question solved managing of life situations after releasing from job when a client was unemployed for some time and the job which was recommended to him was financially undervalued. I found out by the carried out research that it is not possible to make conclusions how to manage crisis situations in the case of people with addicted behaviour. It is the individual matter of each person how he can withstand with life obstacles. The results of this thesis can be benefit for other clients with whom I will work while performing my job.

This study explores how the representation of the drug-addict in Hollywood cinema has changed due to governmental and studio policy change, social shifts of opinion, and economic structure. This discussion and exploration primarily focuses upon narrative Hollywood film as this industry has a long and varied history of addiction films. While there have been a variety of shifts in the depiction of drug-addiction due to social changes and industry regulation, perhaps at no other time in cinema history has the culmination of economics, politics, and independent art had such a large impact on the depiction of addiction than in the 1970s. This defining decade did more than alter the social perspective on drug usage; it set the stage for a drastic alteration in the perception of drug-addiction that occurred in the decades to follow. The Seventies were filled with social upheaval and a powerful youth movement that altered the representation greatly. This study discusses three types of drug-addiction representation and the social, political, and economic context in which they reflect and influence. While the social importance placed upon cinema is not questioned in this investigation, the techniques of representation of the addict in film are explored. I examine three characterizations in the addiction films of the 1970s. These phases include, but are not limited to representations of African-Americans, war veterans, and narcissists as drug-addicts in American cinema. I propose that the representation of the addict has shifted due more to sociological impacts rather than an audience-centered and message driven approach. Expounding further, I argue that the sociological impacts, such as federal legislation, are more impacting on the representation of the drug-addict in film rather than a decisive message about addiction for the benefit of the audience. The political-economic, cultural dynamic also plays a significant role in the development of such representation

No description available.

Researches focused on the issues of alcohol addiction performed in the Czech Republic show that the number of alcohol addicts is higher every year and alcoholism has become a serious public health problem. There are more and more addicts every year, which is except others backed by the words that MUDr. Petr Popov, senior consultant of the Addiction Treatment Department of the General Faculty Hospital in Prague, said to the Právo daily on 10 March 2010: ?We used to have about 300 thousand alcohol addicts. Now there are between 600 and 700 thousand. There are twice as many men as women, but women have been gaining on men?. As an article in the Mladá Fronta Dnes of 21 February 2012 says, the number of young alcohol consumers is increasing, while about a fifth of 16 year olds admit drinking five or more glasses at least three times a month. This results from 2011 research quoted in the above article. My thesis dealing with the issues of alcohol addiction in teenagers wants to map the situation among teenagers of České Budějovice region and their knowledge of the impacts of excessive alcohol consumption on their personal and family lives, social lives and relations. The theoretical part deals with the problems of the process and occurrence of alcohol addiction in general and with the social and health consequences of excessive alcohol consumption, with the factors influencing teenagers to consumption of alcohol and other drugs and prevention in the field of addiction focused on teenagers. In the research part I particularly focus on socioeconomic background of young respondents, personal experience with alcohol and marginally on the other addictive substances. I also focus on mapping the knowledge of the consequences of alcohol consumption, influence of environment and of free time activities. I applied quantitative research, in the form of a questionnaire. My research shows that most of teenagers are aware of the consequences of alcohol consumption or abuse, but they do not limit alcohol consumption in their lives and they actually increase its consumption as they are growing older. More systematic application of training seminars focused on more consistent care about personal and social development and better orientation of free time activities can definitely contribute to prevention of alcohol abuse, of addiction development among teenagers, to further improvement of their knowledge and skills used for alcohol consumption reduction and consequent addiction. Better legislation measures in the field of punishing young users of alcohol and drugs would undoubtedly contribute as well.

The diploma thesis theme, which I have chosen, Addiction to the nasal use of pervitin, is based on my long-term interest in this subject.One of the factors that may be important in the study of any drug problem is the ritual. Rituals here may appear on several levels - it may contribute to the formation and maintenance of a dependency, in the application itself (creation of "lines" on the mirror, the use of identity cards, sniffing with a rolled banknote, etc.) and can take various forms (e.g., group or individual) (Holzbachova, 1999). For my thesis, I have chosen the method of qualitative research. The basic approach of qualitative research includes the grounded theory. The aim of the thesis is to analyze and describe the different aspects of ritual behavior of nasal drug users. The research question was to discover, which aspects of ritual occur in nasal drug users. As it is described in literature, all drug users ritualize the drug application to some extent. This represents stylized and routine behavior that occurs during drug use. There are situations, like the procurement of drugs, methods of taking, activities following the use of drugs and the ways to prevent the negative effects of drugs (Grund, 1993). During an interview, two of the interviewees said the word "ritual". Cyril considers it a ritual and the activities precede sniffing. These are activities associated with the hunt for the drug, the journey to the drug and the nervousness "before trip", which according to him is stronger than the feeling of drug application. Dana describes the application procedure as a ritual. However, she describes as ritualistic her behavior during the purchase of a sufficient supply of cigarettes for intoxication or when applying the drug on the toilet seat, wiping the toilet boards before the actual preparation of the drug for application. Although the other two interviewees did not use the word ritual in their answers directly, some ritualistic elements signaled a routine behavior in conducting the drugs process by them as well. In general, we assume that the thesis can contribute to the discussion about the ritual aspects of drug users. This work brings in new information about the rituals of nasal drug users. We anticipate publication in a professional periodical.

A presente dissertação teve como objetivo investigar a toxicomania a partir da clínica psicanalítica com usuários de álcool e/ou drogas. Empreendeu-se para tanto, uma revisão teórica do campo psicanalítico orientado pela obra freudiana e pelo ensino de Lacan, articulada a uma análise de cinco casos clínicos. O tema e questões relacionadas surgiram dos desafios ante a prática e de uma atitude investigativa, por parte da autora, diante do serviço público assistencial, além de perceber a relevância atribuída ao tema pela sociedade contemporânea em virtude de seu expressivo crescimento como problema de saúde pública. As questões que se colocam no texto podem ser propostas a partir das perguntas: o que é toxicomania? Qual a influência desse signo? __ uma vez que o termo toxicomania significa alguma coisa para alguém, para a medicina, por exemplo, o sintoma é um signo. Quais as consequências para a direção do tratamento de fazer da toxicomania umsintoma, signo da doença? É possível que a toxicomania seja um sintoma, não como signo, mas, como significante, e, como tal, passível de ser decifrado? Portanto, a linha de trabalho segue, inicialmente, a ética da psicanálise e o lugar do psicanalista na instituição pública de saúde; destaca a toxicomania articulada aos discursos, tal como propostos por Jacques Lacan, e suas modalidades de tratamento; aponta os avatares da toxicomania na contemporaneidade; e, por fim, levanta a questão sobre a toxicomania à luz da psicanálise, bem como seu papel no diagnóstico clínico. Nessa perspectiva, foram verificadas duas hipóteses: a toxicomania como um fenômeno clínico e no caso de pacientes cuja estrutura clínica seja neurótica, a toxicomania ser um sintoma. Para Freud, o sintoma é uma formação de compromisso que promove uma satisfação substitutiva. Ao longo do trabalho, verificou-se que, por vezes, a toxicomania também pode ser uma substituição desse tipo. / This dissertation aimed to investigate the drug addiction from the psychoanalytic clinic with users of alcohol and /or drugs. Taken up for both, a theoretical review of the field work guided by Freudian work and the teaching of Lacan, articulated to an analysis of five cases. The topic and issues were the challenges before the practice and attitude research by the author, before the public welfare, and understand the importance given to the subject by contemporary society because of their significant growth as a health problem. The issues that arise in the text may be proposed from the questions: what is drug addiction? What is the influence of this sign? since the sentence drug addiction means something to someone, because, for medicine, for example, the symptom is a sign. What are the consequences for the direction of the treatment to make the drug addiction a symptom, sign of the disease? Is it possible that the drug addition is a symptom, not like a sign, but like a significant and therefore able to be deciphered? So the line of work follow, initially, the ethics of psychoanalysis and the place of the psychoanalyst in the institution of public health, highlights the drug addiction linked to discourses, as proposed by Jacques Lacan, and their modalits of treatment, as the avatars of drug addiction in contemporaneity, and, finally, raises the question about drug addiction in the light of psychoanalysis, and its role in clinical diagnosis. Accordingly, two hypotheses were verified: the drug addiction as a clinical phenomenon and in the case of patients whose clinical structure is neurotic, the addiction is a symptom. For Freud, the symptom is a formation of compromise that promotes a substitutive satisfaction. Throughout the work, it was found that sometimes the drug addiction can also be a replacement of this type.

Addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder for which there is no effective treatment. This may reflect our lack of understanding of the psychological and neural mechanisms that support the transition, in vulnerable individuals, from recreational drug use to compulsive drug seeking habits. Over the last decade clinical and preclinical studies have begun to shed light on the psychological and neural basis of the individual vulnerability to cocaine addiction, but despite the epidemic in opiates addiction in the USA and incremental opioid drug abuse and addiction in the UK, heroin addiction has hitherto been under-investigated. Using a novel preclinical model of compulsive heroin seeking behaviour in which some rats self-administering heroin persist in responding under a second-order schedule of reinforcement despite punishment (Chapter 3), the experiments in this thesis investigated the psychological, behavioural, neural and cellular mechanisms involved in the vulnerability to develop compulsive heroin seeking. Chapter 4 aimed to identify behavioural traits, such as anxiety, stress reactivity or decision making, that predict an increased vulnerability to develop compulsive heroin seeking. Chapter 5 aimed to characterise the neural and cellular correlates of heroin seeking habits, and compulsivity. Based on the combination of hotspot analysis, quantitative PCR, RNAscope and western-blot analyses, the data presented demonstrate that compulsive habits are associated with a differential pattern of cellular plasticity within corticostriatal networks, and are preceded by diverse cellular adaptations, especially in the striatum, in vulnerable individuals. Finally, chapter 6 further investigated the cellular specificity of the observed adaptations in experiments that revealed exposure to heroin and cocaine, triggers a downregulation of the dopamine transporter preferentially in astrocytes, and not in neurons as previously thought. The results presented in this thesis offer new insights into the neural and cellular basis of the vulnerability to develop compulsive heroin seeking, a key feature of opioid addiction.

A presente dissertação teve como objetivo investigar a toxicomania a partir da clínica psicanalítica com usuários de álcool e/ou drogas. Empreendeu-se para tanto, uma revisão teórica do campo psicanalítico orientado pela obra freudiana e pelo ensino de Lacan, articulada a uma análise de cinco casos clínicos. O tema e questões relacionadas surgiram dos desafios ante a prática e de uma atitude investigativa, por parte da autora, diante do serviço público assistencial, além de perceber a relevância atribuída ao tema pela sociedade contemporânea em virtude de seu expressivo crescimento como problema de saúde pública. As questões que se colocam no texto podem ser propostas a partir das perguntas: o que é toxicomania? Qual a influência desse signo? __ uma vez que o termo toxicomania significa alguma coisa para alguém, para a medicina, por exemplo, o sintoma é um signo. Quais as consequências para a direção do tratamento de fazer da toxicomania umsintoma, signo da doença? É possível que a toxicomania seja um sintoma, não como signo, mas, como significante, e, como tal, passível de ser decifrado? Portanto, a linha de trabalho segue, inicialmente, a ética da psicanálise e o lugar do psicanalista na instituição pública de saúde; destaca a toxicomania articulada aos discursos, tal como propostos por Jacques Lacan, e suas modalidades de tratamento; aponta os avatares da toxicomania na contemporaneidade; e, por fim, levanta a questão sobre a toxicomania à luz da psicanálise, bem como seu papel no diagnóstico clínico. Nessa perspectiva, foram verificadas duas hipóteses: a toxicomania como um fenômeno clínico e no caso de pacientes cuja estrutura clínica seja neurótica, a toxicomania ser um sintoma. Para Freud, o sintoma é uma formação de compromisso que promove uma satisfação substitutiva. Ao longo do trabalho, verificou-se que, por vezes, a toxicomania também pode ser uma substituição desse tipo. / This dissertation aimed to investigate the drug addiction from the psychoanalytic clinic with users of alcohol and /or drugs. Taken up for both, a theoretical review of the field work guided by Freudian work and the teaching of Lacan, articulated to an analysis of five cases. The topic and issues were the challenges before the practice and attitude research by the author, before the public welfare, and understand the importance given to the subject by contemporary society because of their significant growth as a health problem. The issues that arise in the text may be proposed from the questions: what is drug addiction? What is the influence of this sign? since the sentence drug addiction means something to someone, because, for medicine, for example, the symptom is a sign. What are the consequences for the direction of the treatment to make the drug addiction a symptom, sign of the disease? Is it possible that the drug addition is a symptom, not like a sign, but like a significant and therefore able to be deciphered? So the line of work follow, initially, the ethics of psychoanalysis and the place of the psychoanalyst in the institution of public health, highlights the drug addiction linked to discourses, as proposed by Jacques Lacan, and their modalits of treatment, as the avatars of drug addiction in contemporaneity, and, finally, raises the question about drug addiction in the light of psychoanalysis, and its role in clinical diagnosis. Accordingly, two hypotheses were verified: the drug addiction as a clinical phenomenon and in the case of patients whose clinical structure is neurotic, the addiction is a symptom. For Freud, the symptom is a formation of compromise that promotes a substitutive satisfaction. Throughout the work, it was found that sometimes the drug addiction can also be a replacement of this type.

abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the literacy practices of three members of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) and to explore how they use these practices to support and maintain their recovery in their lives. This study also aims to examine how each participant used specialist language, enacted certain identities and acquired the secondary Discourse in A.A. through literacy use. This dissertation study is the result of in-depth interviewing in which each participant was interviewed three times for 90-minutes. These interviews were then transcribed and analyzed using discourse analysis. Study results are presented in three chapters, each one designated to one of the participants. Within these chapters is a life history (chronology) of the participant leading up to the point in which they got sober. The chapters also include a thematic discourse analysis of the interview transcripts across themes of literacy practice and topics in A.A. A conclusion is then presented to investigate how literacy was used from a sociocultural perspective in the study. Due to the emotionally charged nature of this dissertation, it has been formatted to present the stories of the participants first, leaving the theoretical framework, literature review and research methods to be included as appendices to the main text. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2013