Prevention of Alcohol Consumption in Young
Alcohol consumption has soared among children. The irresponsibility of some shops and low awareness and risk perception that young people, make it rare for a teenager does not drink or have drunk alcohol at some time. Unaware that alcohol abuse is responsible for more than 60 diseases and 9,000 deaths in Spain each year.
Adolescents commonly practiced thirteen and the bottle. Unconsciousness and ignorance of the risks involved, cause every time you start this practice at younger ages. The euphoria, ease of connection and evasion are some of the reasons that young people screened for drinking. What do they know the consequences can be dire: mental impairment, difficulty thinking, school failure, decreased physical strength, and diseases such as liver cirrhosis, hypertension or heart disease.
To try to reverse this negative trend, coinciding with the campaign of the Ministry of Health on the Risks of Underage Drinking, family physicians recalled the crucial role they may have to stop this behavior. This issue, among others, was discussed last week in Valencia, in the Days of Family Medicine Update.
The group of primary care practitioners and family physicians are in a position to detect patterns of alcohol consumption among minors when they come to his office for regular checkups. Hence, in these days of update have given workshops to teach how to detect signs of regular alcohol consumption: insomnia, eating disorders, behavioral changes …
The clinical interview in the office is the key tool to empathize with the patient and to detect risk behaviors. In this regard, Dr. Ignacio Ruz says, “is to give personalized information to patients according to their willingness to change his attitude. The patient will respond better if you ask permission before advising. ” The primary care provider should focus on family circumstances that may favor the use of alcohol or other drugs.