53185 - Drug Addiction Psychology and Epidemiology

Learning outcomes

The course intends to give a framework of drug addiction in the psychical uneasiness context, as its essential and growing component.   
 

Course contents

In this course some clinical experiences will be presented. They give prominence to the importance of psychiatric and pharmacological knowledge, in order to manage the drug addict-substance relation.
Clinical experience starts by the interview with drug addict; this observation point is fundamental to notice his drug consumption. To effectively manage this contact, it’s important to know some essential psychopathological elements and classificatory systems of mental disorders. Drug addict understanding needs both symptomathology and psychodynamics knowledge.

Psychopharmacology is chosen as a direct access to the comprehension of drug addiction. Drugs hit brain and generate hard symptoms, over dependence and abstinence phenomena. Every substance has its own effect on brain; several recent researches study them by action process and proved damage terms; then, it’s inevitable to know these drugs by most recent psychopharmacological analyses.

Once understood general elements of psychical uneasiness, particularly for drug addiction, and once studied several substance types, it’s possible to complete a drug addict’s outlook. In this way, epidemiological aspects of drug addiction are not separated from phenomenon objectivity, and become their definition elements. To complete substance and drug addict definitions, two further factors will be considered:
- HIV infection and its psychological implications;
- the so-called dual diagnosis, that is the co-existence of a mental disorder trouble and a drug addiction in the same subject. Double diagnosis is a fundamental point of view to know and face therapeutically the drug addict.

There are concrete possibilities to get over drug addiction, although they are difficult to attain because of the specificity and complexity of human psyche. These opportunities are based on an exact knowledge of diffusion and effects of substance, and on a direct knowledge of drug addict. Dialogue, communication and finding the right milieu situation for the meeting with users are key-factors that should proceed also after the first contact.

Readings/Bibliography

S. Cambria, Disagio psichico e servizio sociale. Elementi di psichiatria per assistenti sociali, Angeli, Milano, 2003.

S. Cambria, Tossicodipendenza e servizio sociale. Elementi di psichiatria delle tossicodipendenze, Angeli, Milano, 2004.

P. Guidicini, G. Pieretti, San Patrignano. Terapia ambientale ed effetto città, Angeli, Milano, 1996 (a whole reading is reccomended; however, the knowledge of the followin chapters is required: 1-2-8-9-10-18-19-20-21-22-23).

Teaching methods

Lectures

Assessment methods

Written exam about reccomended reading. If a student is not satisfied of his evaluation, an oral exam is possible.

Teaching tools

Overhead projector

Office hours

See the website of Santino Cambria