Literature Review - Low Self-Control, Gender, and Perscription Essay

Literature Review - Low Self-Control, Gender, and Perscription Painkiller Abuse - Essay Example In many cases other prescription drugs such as psychotropic medications, narcotic analgesics, and even non-narcotic analgesics are also substances of abuse. Wide accessibility of analgesics over the counter and without prescription has led to a situation where these drugs are very commonly abused and often unnoticed, mainly due to cultural attitudinal tolerance. This points to the fact that no matter how great the prevailing degree of cultural attitudinal tolerance for addictive practices is, or how strong individual personality predispositions are, nobody can become addicted to these drugs without access to them. The crucial and determinative predisposing factor, which, therefore, constitutes the most acceptable basis for the nosological categorizing of these analgesic addicts, is the possession of those idiosyncratic or developmental personality traits for which these drugs could have adjustive properties. Chief among these effects is euphoria, which is highly adjustive for inadequ ate personalities, that is, motivationally immature individuals lacking in such criteria of ego maturity as long-range goals, a sense of responsibility, self-reliance and initiative, volitional and executive independence, frustration tolerance, and the ability to defer the gratification of immediate hedonistic needs for the sake of achieving long-term goals. Studies have uncovered in the life histories of such addicts, overpermissive or underdominating, overprotecting, and overdominating parents that tend to foster the development of the inadequate personality syndrome. Psychosocial and psychopharmacological research has pointed to several factors that may predispose to such addictions in suitably vulnerable population, and in this review, several relevant articles will be critically reviewed in order to update knowledge and evidence in this area of study. Recent literature in this area of study has been selected and