Mental health articles
OF mental health care and mentally ill
dependence
When to suspect sleeping pill dependence
When to suspect sleeping pill dependence Dependence should be suspected with anyone who: • has been taking sleeping pills for more than three months; • insists that you should prescribe these medicines; • needs more sleeping pills because of complaints of ‘tension’, for example, and sleep problems. Related articles Why do people become dependent […]
Tags: dependence, sleeping pill
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substance abuse and dependence disorders
Substance abuse refers to the overuse of alcohol and/ or drugs that results in harmful physical, social, legal, or interpersonal consequences; substance dependence is marked by continued use of alcohol or other drugs, despite these consequences. The WHO has argued that an individual’s cultural context must be considered when diagnosing an alcohol problem. For a […]
Tags: dependence, disorders, substance abuse
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Dependence about personality disorder
This can often be heard as an excuse used to avoid offering help to people with personality disorder. Some health care professionals may fear offering services in case it promotes dependence. While dependence can be a genuine problem at times, it is a necessary part of the healing process. Dependence can best be viewed as […]
Tags: dependence, disorder, personality, Personality Disorder
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Managing alcohol dependence
Managing alcohol dependence Detoxification Alcohol dependence usually requires controlled withdrawal (detoxifi cation) with an attenuation therapy (such as a benzodiazepine), as abrupt cessation of alcohol can induce one of the withdrawal states (Box 14.5). Detoxifi cation is increasingly taking place in the community, but inpatient detoxifi cation is recommended for those at risk of suicide, […]
Tags: alcohol, alcohol dependence, dependence
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Treating opioid dependence
Maintenance, either with methadone mixture (1 mg/mL) or buprenorphine should be the mainstay of management for opioid dependence, certainly until the patient is able and willing to withdraw (‘detoxify’) and achieve abstinence. Methadone maintenance treatment has been shown to be effective in reducing health, criminal and social harms in trials, including many randomised, doubleblind studies. […]
Tags: dependence, opioid, opioid dependence
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Dependence syndrome
The dependence syndrome is a cluster of symptoms, not all of which need be present for a diagnosis of dependence to be made. The key feature is a compulsion to use drugs, which results in overwhelming priority being given to drug-seeking behaviour. Other features are tolerance (need to increase drug dose to achieve desired effect), […]
Tags: dependence, syndrome
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