Comprehensive Attention with a Harm Reduction Perspective for Psychoactive Substances Consumers in a Third Level Hospital

Abstract

The great problem of addictions during the last five decades has been investigated through the behavioral analysis of social determinants involving multiple risk factors of initiation and maintenance of legal and illegal substances consumption, as well as the search of protective factors that allow preventing and achieving abstinence of drug abuse. Currently there is no solution and we are at the crossroads of lacking comprehensive attention, since there are treatments focused only on achieving abstinence and do not pay attention to the physical consequences of substance consumption, such as: infectious and non-communicable diseases. It is important to treat the addictions problem with a holistic approach, which facilitates access to effective medical services, based on scientific evidence, applied to adherence to treatment and adapted to patient diagnosis. With the aim of preventing or reducing the physical and mental damages that these substances can cause to the health of the users, allowing to achieve a better quality of life.