Recognition and Management of Substance Use and Misuse Among Adolescents (Research Paper Sample)

Applied Research Methods and Design_YR_21
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Patch 1: Mini-review and research question
Recognition and management of substance use and misuse among adolescents
Introduction
The use of drugs does not precipitate danger when put into effective and correct usage. Drugs react either positively or negatively to the body system. Scientifically, a drug is any substance used or administered in medicine for the treatment of disease. Drugs are helpful in medical settings for the treatment and prevention of diseases. Drugs can be stimulants, inhalants, hallucinoses, and narcotics. Any use of these substances in a way that deviates from medical prescription results in misuse and abuse of drugs. The topic of drug abuse among the youth is currently and over time has been debatable in many societies. In order to expound on this finding, this mini-review focuses on five research papers written in the recent five years. These academic papers are sourced from PubMed and Scopus using specific search words such as drug, abuse, adolescents, youth, recognizing effects of drug and substance abuse. Therefore, the review in this paper consists of an evaluation and summary of 5 journals about substance abuse among adolescents.
Review and Evaluation
Presenting the analysis from the keywords used in the articles, the five research journals share common words and statements. These keywords are commonly used throughout the paper body. Garofoli (2020) uses addiction, substance use disorder, stimulants, alcohol and substance abuse. These words are also echoed in Siste et al., (2019) journal. In addition, the authors use words such as adolescence, illicit drug use, drug misuse and delinquency. Basing understanding each paper from these keywords, it is imperative to recognize the main themes in every document. For instance, the Garofoli (2020) article is based on providing insight into the understanding of the drug, it's abuse and misuse as well as its management. This systematic study is also evident in Nawi et al., 2021, where risk and protective factors are identified through research methodology. On the other hand, Mooney and Gould (2018) define the cognitive consequences of using drugs among adolescents. Similarly, Kulak and Griswold (2019) recognize and manage substance abuse in youths. Generally, the documents are similar and specific in discussing matters of the youth (adolescents) and presenting consequences and management methods to address the problem.
Of all the five articles identified, quantitative methods were included in the final review. The data obtained in all articles included protective and risk factors in the use and misuse of drugs. Also, the main factors that were realized were further categorized into three social levels of community, family and individual factors. According to Nawi et al., 2021, the individual risk factors were identified as rebelliousness among the adolescents, low religiousness, impulsivity and other factors relating to homework completeness. Siste et al., 2019 were specific to family risk factors, including prenatal maternal smoking of cigarettes, poor psychological control of maternal care, negligence, poor supervision from parents, and insufficient prenatal knowledge. Also, according to Kulak and Griswold (2019), the presence of other family members using drugs for unprescribed purposes expose adolescents to drug abuse and misuse. Community wise, all authors of the five articles were specific on the chances of peer pressure in the community. This is derived from other peers using and abusing drugs.
Recognition of drug users is widely discussed in the five research papers. Every journal tries to answer the question of how to identify drug users among others in society. Mooney and Gould, 2018 identifies harmful effects of using drug abuse as comorbid issues. These issues are mental (Siste et al., 2019), future delinquency, suicidal ideation, poor academic performance and other neurological conditions as identified by Garofoli (2020). Drug use among adolescents is associated with intense mental issues. Depression and anxiety stand out in all the five journals, identified as the main issues of mental illness. Because of these effects, youths are victims of unhealthy weight loss, memory lapse, drug addiction, poor diet and misbehaviour in the community. Kulak and Griswold (2019) echo academic issues related to adolescents using and abusing drugs. This is common among college-going students, who, through peer pressure, have low-class grades. Compared to non-drug users, the drug adductors are poor in class performance and show inactiveness in group participation. Suicide thoughts result from depression and mental illness that renders many adolescents useless in their life. Delinquency (Siste et al., 2019) correlates drug misuse and delinquency among adolescents. This is tracked from similar mechanisms from an individual using drugs inappropriately. Adolescents in delinquency often have a reciprocal relationship with others. The main result comes from peer pressure and a disrupted family environment.
Management comes after recognition. Following effective identification of risk factors, the authors embarked on providing a solution to adolescents in this situation. According to Nawi et al., 2021), the process of management is all about treatment. This discussion level is where research methodologies were developed and applied for different purposes. Treatment of these comorbid issues is basically prevention and treatment. As mentioned by Garofoli (2020), treatment varies according to patients’ conditions and type of drug abuse. Going by this idea, two articles considered identifying individuals through diagnosis and screening among the five papers. In other documents, the main point of the research was based on identifying the commonly abused drugs among the youth. These drugs were identified as Marijuana, Alcohol, nicotine and cigarette smoking. These drugs affect adolescents differently; thus, they require a different treatment method. This suggests the different quantitative research methods applied in the research papers.
This systematic review of five academic journals on substance abuse among adolescents presents different research methods used in every article. These methods have essentially contributed to answering the question of every paper. For instance, as Nawi et al. (2021) applied their research method conducted using EBSCOhost, PubMed, web of science and other sources, they came up with suitable sources for this course study. The selection criteria in their research are similar to the method applied in this review, where articles in less than five years are used to gather information. The approach given by Garofoli (2020) is a craft