Adolescents, Drugs, and HIV Risk: A Study in Oregon and Mexico - Essay Sample

Introduction

According to research the adolescence teenagers who gets involved in drug abuse are more likely to involve themselves in risky behaviors. The risk of contracting HIV and AIDS is very high in the adolescence teenagers who are abusing drugs. The treatment of drug abuse is the perfect opportunity where HIV risk behaviors can be targeted. A trial study was conducted on Anglo and Hispanic adolescents in Oregon and Mexico where a one-session HIV-risk intervention was placed in trial and evaluated in a controlled clinic on drug abuse. Random youth were allocated to independent cognitive behavior, to family therapy condition and unsegregated behavior where family and individual sessions were used (Barrera, 2011). The HIV particular involvement was independent to change, but the other studies were involved in reducing risk behaviors of HIV from the intake day up to the eighteenth moth with the help of follow up on the adolescents with high risk, in Cognitive behavior therapy and integrated behavior and family therapy. In the adolescents with low risk cognitive behavior therapy in conjunction with integrated behavior and family therapy was successful in defeating health risking sexual behaviors. The study that was conducted was a mirror that portrayed that the drug use in adolescents have intervention and prevention effects on them, but that only depends on their comparative risks to HIV (Barrera, 2011).

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Among the youth health risking sexual behaviors has become a topic of discussion and has become one of the top priority of the national research. According to the data in the health care systems the largest number of people in the united states of America who contact the sexually transmitted diseases was seen to be youths that were below the age of 25 (Crownover2006). There had been a notable decrease in the children that were below the age of thirteen from the data that was got from 2001 to the end of 2004 but there was a huge rise of youths that ranged from the age of thirteen to twenty four from the same data which is believed to be in the rise. The rise in numbers on the adolescents shows that they are highly active in sexual behaviors and also drug abuse. Between the ages of thirteen to nineteen it is believed that most of the youth that had contacted the sexually transmitted diseases was due to unprotected cases of sexual activities, noting that half of the teens were sexually active according to the data. The highest factor and most common one that had been linked to these activities was drug use (Crownover2006).

Etiology which studies the origins and cause as well as health risking sexual behaviors treatment having been the highest researched by the nation research organization too was able to associate the sexually transmitted diseases to the usage of drugs but mostly the abuse of them (Kravitz, 2016). Most studies prove that the adolescent individual who are abusing drugs are the most of those that involve in sexual activities and in most cases they are unprotected sexual activities that lead to the transmitting of the diseases. Another link to sexuality transmitted diseases and drug use was the sharing of instruments that are using to administer the drugs into the body. In some cases the sharing of needles that were used in injecting hard drugs were also another cause of transmitting sexually transmitted diseases. The abusage of drugs has been seen to lead to many unplanned situations and disasters that were never planned for. When one is abusing drugs they are not in their normal senses and some might be taken advantage of their situation of state of mind that lead to unthoughtful cases of sexual activities that lead to the high cases of the sexually transmitted diseases (Kravitz, 2016). In most cases of drug abuse, individuals have reported sexual disasters that have happened to them, such as rape and gang sex. In most cases of rape there is no protection involved and in the cases of the gang sex that happen when gathered youth get wasted on drugs mostly in parties start to share because they are not in their sober mind or have been brainwashed by the predators. In the cases of sharing there is the transmission of the sexually transmitted diseases with the rise of the diseases among the adolescents. One person may transfer a disease to the whole group in such a situation (Kravitz, 2016).

The reason for the infections building in the body is due to the shame that the youth go through and do not seek help after such cases have happened. In some cases the youth realize that something bad had happened to them when it's too late because when one is abusing the drug everything looks okay or doesn't even remember what happened to them. Forums to rehabilitate the youth on drug abuse have been seen to be fruitful in the fight against the sexually transmitted diseases and is able to help in the treatment of those that have acquired the diseases and help them to live a better life (Kravitz, 2016). The national research organizations have done studies and research in ways to reduce the sexually transmitted diseases in the adolescents by education and fight against drug abuse.

Hops, H., Ozechowski, T. J., Waldron, H. B., Davis, B., Turner, C. W., Brody, J. L., & Barrera, M. (2011). Adolescent health-risk sexual behaviors: Effects of a drug abuse intervention. AIDS and Behavior, 15(8), 1664.

Lindberg, C., Lewis-Spruill, C., & Crownover, R. (2006). Barriers to sexual and reproductive health care: urban male adolescents speak out. Issues in comprehensive pediatric nursing, 29(2), 73-88.

Mokdad, A. H., Forouzanfar, M. H., Daoud, F., Mokdad, A. A., El Bcheraoui, C., Moradi-Lakeh, M., ... & Kravitz, H. (2016). Global burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors for young people's health during 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. The Lancet, 387(10036), 2383-2401.