Question

1. What is the first step of substance abuse treatment?

2. Explain the difference between the direct, indirect and interactive effects of stress.

3. What is the safety signal hypothesis?

4. What are Parasomnias?

Answer 1

1. The first step in the treatment of substance abuse is detoxification. This means that the person has to discontinue taking the drug, and has to be drug free. During the period of detoxification, withdrawal symptoms can appear. To counter the withdrawal symptoms anxiolytic medications are administered to the person and tapered off until the withdrawal systems disappear.

2. Direct effects of stress are emotional and physical effects which are experienced directly by a person due to an event or thought. Indirect effects are due to coping mechanism or consequences of the direct effects of stress such as drinking alcohol or smoking. Interactive effects are genetic factors, physiological factors and situational factors all interacting with one another to cause stress.

3. Safety signal hypothesis is a type of avoidance leaning where people remember previous experience associated with anxiety and learn to associate these locations or situations with it. These signals help people to avoid these potentially harmful situation in the future.

4. Parasomnias are a category of sleep disorders that are characterized by abnormal behavior, perceptions and emotions which occur when falling asleep, during sleep or while waking up from sleep. Some of the parasomnias are somnambulism, sleep paralyses and sleep terrors.