Substance Use and Misuse in sub-Saharan Africa


Book Description

This book brings together scholars from across the behavioural sciences and public health to examine substance use in Sub-Saharan Africa. Divided into two parts, the first chapters examine aetiology, signs and symptoms, risk factors, impact, and psychosocial challenges relating to use of conventional drugs, among others. The second section focuses on prevention and intervention strategies to curtail substance abuse. The authors provide a research-informed, practical resource on sustainable community health concepts, procedures and practices for addressing substance use for the health and wellbeing of partner communities. The prevention and intervention strategies discussed include a comprehensive consideration of context-specific behavioural, environmental, psychosocial and cultural factors that may affect substance use. The chapters examine various aspects of use including, dependency, intoxication, and withdrawal in tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and other substances. The book provides a research-informed, practical resource that will appeal to students and scholars of psychology, psychiatry and public health; as well as to policymakers and practitioners in the fields of addiction, development and allied health.




Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (Volume 4)


Book Description

Mental, neurological, and substance use disorders are common, highly disabling, and associated with significant premature mortality. The impact of these disorders on the social and economic well-being of individuals, families, and societies is large, growing, and underestimated. Despite this burden, these disorders have been systematically neglected, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, with pitifully small contributions to scaling up cost-effective prevention and treatment strategies. Systematically compiling the substantial existing knowledge to address this inequity is the central goal of this volume. This evidence-base can help policy makers in resource-constrained settings as they prioritize programs and interventions to address these disorders.




Contemporary Issues in Mental Health Care in sub-Saharan Africa


Book Description

Seventy percent of the global burden of mental disorders is located in low and middle income countries (LMIC),including sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, in Africa,only 0.62% of the national health budget is allocated to mental health compared to a global median of 2.8% and 5% in Europe. The government is the source of funding in 62%of patients with severe mental disorder in the World Health Organisation (WHO), Africa Region, the lowest of all the WHO regions, and lower compared to a global median of 79%. This is compounded by poor resources, with mental health outpatient facilities in WHO Africa Region being less that 10% of the global median. To address these problems, the WHO launched its Mental Health Action Gap Programme (mhGAP) in 2008, to scale-up mental health services in low and middle income countries (LMIC). The book is directed to all policy makers in sub-Saharan Africa to aid decision making about the urgent need for sustainable and relevant mental health care strategies, and the important areas that need priority. The book should be helpful to local and international researchers in formulating research questions relevant to the African continent and it will be of interest to medical practitioners and students in the region as adjunct to standard text books.




Disease and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa


Book Description

Current data and trends in morbidity and mortality for the sub-Saharan Region as presented in this new edition reflect the heavy toll that HIV/AIDS has had on health indicators, leading to either a stalling or reversal of the gains made, not just for communicable disorders, but for cancers, as well as mental and neurological disorders.




Handbook of Motivational Counseling


Book Description

Revised and updated to reflect the most recent developments in the field, the second edition of the Handbook of Motivational Counseling presents comprehensive coverage of the development and identification of motivational problems and the most effective treatment techniques. Equips clinicians with specific instructions for enhancing clients’ motivation for change by targeting their maladaptive motivational patterns Provides step-by-step instructions in the administration, scoring, and interpretation of the motivational assessments, along with details of how to implement the counseling procedures Updated to reflect the most current research and effective treatment techniques, along with all-new chapters on motive-based approaches, motivational counseling with the dually diagnosed, cognitive and motivational retraining, meaning-centered counseling, and motivation in sport Showcases various basic motivational techniques and their adaptations, such as bibliotherapy, individual therapy, and group counseling, while demonstrating specialized uses of the techniques, such as in work settings and rehabilitation medicine




School-based Drug Abuse Prevention


Book Description




Mental Illness in General Health Care


Book Description

This book presents the largest international study of psychological disorders seen in primary health care. Centres in fourteen countries participated in this investigation, including Brazil, Chile, China, India, Nigeria and the USA as well as several European countries. The study has shown how people with mental disorders present their problems to doctors and how likely their disorders are to be detected and treated.




Drug Abuse and Addiction in Medical Illness


Book Description

Drug abuse and addiction are common in clinical practice. Often they interfere with patient treatment or require an alternative approach. Drug Abuse and Addiction in Medical Illness: Causes, Consequences, and Treatment is a major contribution to the literature, a gold standard title offering a comprehensive range of topics for those who care for patients with addiction, conduct research in this area, or simply have an interest in the field. Offering state-of-the-art information for all those working with drug abusing or addicted patients, or for those interested in this topic from other research perspectives, the volume is a first of its kind book -- rich, comprehensive, yet focused, addressing the needs of the very active theoretical, basic, and clinical research in the field. Comprised of 46 chapters organized in four sections and developed by the leading international experts, Drug Abuse and Addiction in Medical Illness: Causes, Consequences, and Treatment covers virtually every core, as well as contemporary, topic on addiction, from the established theories to the most modern research and development in the field. Enhancing the educational value of the volume, every chapter includes an abstract and two boxes summarizing learning objectives and directions for future research. Drug Abuse and Addiction in Medical Illness: Causes, Consequences, and Treatment discusses the topic in a authoritative, systematic manner and is an indispensable reference for all clinicians and researchers interested in this rapidly changing field.




Africa and the War on Drugs


Book Description

Nigerian drug lords in UK prisons, khat-chewing Somali pirates hijacking Western ships, crystal meth-smoking gangs controlling South Africa's streets, and narco-traffickers corrupting the state in Guinea-Bissau: these are some of the vivid images surrounding drugs in Africa which have alarmed policymakers, academics and the general public in recent years. In this revealing and original book, the authors weave these aspects into a provocative argument about Africa's role in the global trade and control of drugs. In doing so, they show how foreign-inspired policies have failed to help African drug users but have strengthened the role of corrupt and brutal law enforcement officers, who are tasked with halting the export of heroin and cocaine to European and American consumer markets. A vital book on an overlooked front of the so-called war on drugs.




Neurological, Psychiatric, and Developmental Disorders


Book Description

Brain disordersâ€"neurological, psychiatric, and developmentalâ€"now affect at least 250 million people in the developing world, and this number is expected to rise as life expectancy increases. Yet public and private health systems in developing countries have paid relatively little attention to brain disorders. The negative attitudes, prejudice, and stigma that often surround many of these disorders have contributed to this neglect. Lacking proper diagnosis and treatment, millions of individual lives are lost to disability and death. Such conditions exact both personal and economic costs on families, communities, and nations. The report describes the causes and risk factors associated with brain disorders. It focuses on six representative brain disorders that are prevalent in developing countries: developmental disabilities, epilepsy, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and stroke. The report makes detailed recommendations of ways to reduce the toll exacted by these six disorders. In broader strokes, the report also proposes six major strategies toward reducing the overall burden of brain disorders in the developing world.