Free Essay Sample on Anabolic Steroids and Substance Dependence

1. (a) Differentiate between androgenic and anabolic effects of the male sex hormone testosterone.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Anabolic impact of steroid hormones invigorates the development of numerous tissues, particularly bone and muscle. Other anabolic capacities are expanding muscles, bone thickness, hemoglobin focus, red platelet mass, nitrogen maintenance and protein amalgamation, instinctive organ estimate, maintenance of a few electrolytes, tallness amid pubescence, and improving the invulnerable framework. On the other hand, androgenic effects empower the advancement and upkeep of the male trademark invertebrates by steroid hormone is called androgenic impact. In human, testosterone is the hormone used for this (Hart & Ksir, 2011). Most combined steroid hormones are utilized to smother the androgenic action of testosterone while expanding their anabolic impacts. The androgenic capacities incorporate the active beginning development of the penis (in guys) and clitoris (in females), development and advancement of original vesicles and prostate organs, increment thickness of hair, extending the voice, increment the oil generation of sebaceous organs and invigorate specific male identity attributes.

(b) Describe the potential adverse effects and possible health risks associated with anabolic steroid use by males and females, including psychological manifestations of use that have been observed in many athletes who have used these substances indiscriminately.

Athletes and weightlifters frequently and unlawfully utilize steroids keeping in mind the end goal which is ultimately used to build bulk and change overall physical appearance. There are various adverse outcomes which may emerge because of steroid use including heart assault, shrinkage of gonads in men, bosom diminishment in ladies, and skin break out. Dangers are regularly higher in drugs got illicitly. Today, all real games relationship has restricted the utilization of anabolic steroids. This kind of medication can likewise be taken lawfully through medicine as stated by Hart & Ksir, (2011). Specialists recommend these steroids to men who don't deliver enough of the hormone testosterone, to the individuals who are encountering pallor, or as a method for lessening swelling (Hart & Ksir, 2011). On the off chance that you or a friend or family member is dependent on anabolic steroids it might be advantageous to investigate sedate recovery at a medication treatment focus. Medication treatment focuses offer a wide assortment of projects and is necessary apparatuses in the recuperation procedure.

(c) Present a reasoned, personal commentary on the ethical issues underlying the use of anabolic steroids, with particular reference to implications of use at all levels of sports competition.

From an ethical perspective, the use of anabolic steroids is a form of cheating which gives the user unfair advantage over the other competitors. Anabolic steroids make the user bigger, faster and stronger and increase one's efficiency in sports. However, sports activities are meant to be fair and level ground for all the participants. Therefore, athletes who use steroids violate the basic principles of sports and competition. The use of steroids goes against the policies of sportsmanship that are strict about using performance enhancement drugs. It is unfair for any athlete to gain the upper hand by using drugs during a competition. Such actions should face strict disciplinary measure because they demoralize other athletes who work hard to compete fairly. Hart affirms that using steroids may seem like a good idea at first, but the side effects are not worth the risk (Hart & Ksir 2011). Further, using anabolic steroids is not right because they increase the risk of developing diseases which destroy talents. It is important for the society to educate the athletes the danger of using steroids and the need to maintain fair competition and uphold the social contract of sports.

(d) Under what circumstances, if any, would you support the use of human growth hormone to enhance the height and weight of normal but undersized (i.e., below average in height and weight for their age) children or adolescents, including others interested in enhancing their physical appearance? Explain your viewpoint.

In cases of muscle wasting diseases, a prescription of steroids can be used on the patient to maintain a normal physique. Secondly, the cases of hormone replacement therapy and treatment of patients with severe burns anabolic steroids can be used to promote recovery and the ability of the patient to regain their complexion. Hormone replacement therapy to treat menopause can allow patients to have steroids prescription to improve their daily lives. Controversially, steroids can be used in sexual therapy by couples who want to spice up their sex life and in maintaining water balance which ensures that the kidney functions efficiently. Steroids can also be used in cases of slow growth and development in kids and as a treatment for patients with low immune systems which ensures that they boost their immunity to fight any diseases that are caused by the weakness of the body immune system (Hart & Ksir, 2011).

4. (a) List and briefly describe the major characteristics of the following treatments for substance dependence: total abstinence (Alcoholics Anonymous), motivational enhancement therapy, contingency management, relapse prevention, and the detoxification and maintenance phase of pharmacotherapies, making certain to explain the differentiating features of each.

This involves completely staying away from alcohol and alcoholic drinks. In the United States, the anonymous alcoholic group helps people to regain their sobriety and stop over-dependence on liquor. Hart affirms that "motivational enhancement therapy refers to a period restricted, four-session adjustment utilized as a part of Project MATCH, a US-government-financed investigation of treatment for liquor issues, and the "Consumers' Check-up," which gives standardizing based criticism and investigates customer inspiration to change in light of the input. It is an improvement of motivational meeting and motivational treatment" (Hart & Ksir, 2011). It centers on the treatment of liquor and other substance addictions. The objective of the treatment isn't to control the patient through the recuperation procedure, yet to summon internally propelled change. The strategy has two components: beginning evaluation battery session, and two - four individual remedial meetings with an advisor (Hart & Ksir, 2011). Amid the initial meeting, the expert empowers talk on the patient's encounters with substance to mishandle and evokes self-motivational articulations by giving input to the underlying evaluation. The standards of MET are used to build inspiration and build up an arrangement for additionally change; adapting techniques are likewise provided and talked about the patient. Changes in the patient's conduct are observed, and discontinuance systems utilized are surveyed by the advisor in the following sessions, where patients are urged to maintain forbearance and advance.

In addition to that, contingency management involves coming up with a mechanism to ensure that there is a backup plan in case the treatment does not work as expected. Relapse prevention consists in coming up with techniques to ensure that a patient does not regress to his or her former addictions. This can be through providing that they are given alternative activities to replace their habits. Detoxification involves getting rid of all the toxins from the body through using herbs or water, and in some cases, dialysis is applicable because it purifies the liver. Pharmacotherapy involves surgically removing the toxins from the body and creating a balance in the water level in the body (Hart & Ksir 2011).

(b) Discuss the feasibility of controlled drinking as a realistic goal for those who are dependent on alcohol, citing evidence of support for as well as of opposition to this controversial concept of treatment.

Controlled drinking (CD) has been a dubious subject since the mid-1960s in the USA, and along these lines in whatever is left of the world, and around then separated the field of liquor treatment into two substances with various helpful objectives, restraint or non-forbearance. There is still no concurred meaning of CD as a result. Control can be comprehended as either a quantitative or subjective significance. One could control the amount one beverage, or on the other hand control drinking results, and a few creators have proposed coordinating these two measurements in the meaning of CD as a result (Hart & Ksir,2011). Personal satisfaction is progressively being evaluated in investigations of liquor reliance by the ebb and flow World Health Organization meaning of wellbeing in a way that is nearer to prosperity, as opposed to straightforward nonattendance of ailment.

Moreover, there is as of now no agreement on results that ought to be utilized as a part of the treatment of liquor reliance, which additionally convolutes correlation of abstinent versus non-abstinent objectives. In 2001, the National Institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism created a sentinel model to be the level of substantial drinking days, though the European Medicines Agency. As of late, characterized two conceivable essential endpoints in the evaluation of the viability of medications for liquor reliance have been established. A full forbearance objective which is thought to be a backslide counteractive action after detoxification and middle damage lessening objective which is believed to be a control of the amount of liquor devoured are (Hart & Ksir, 2011).

(c) Develop a series of insightful, reasoned statements reflecting your views on the overall impact of alcoholism treatment programs in the United States, including a discussion of Alcoholics Anonymous and medical treatments and the outcomes attributed to them.

Amongst alcohol abuse treatment, treatment groups give lessons on relapse avoidance. These lessons are intended to enable individuals to recognize the general population, spots, and things that can drive them to come back to drinking. With the assistance of these lessons, individuals can figure out how to both avoid and additionally handle their triggers so they won't relapse under pressure. The individual in recuperation is set in a high-chance circumstance, and the individual can't deal with that circumstance successfully (Hart & Ksir 2011). That absence of adequacy can incite the individual to feel some way or another defenseless or frail, and it can prompt a desire for alcohol. After a powerless minute, individuals simply start to credit life's great things to alcohol. They at that point have a slip by and drink a tad. In time, they begin to drink to an ever-increasing extent.

There are two areas in this continuum that could profit by backslide counteractive action strategies. Individuals could figure out how to maintain a strategic distance from the high-hazard conduct inside and out, or they could get escalated help amid that first slip (Hart & Ksir, 2011). Either strategy could help individuals to evade an all outcome back to alcohol abuse. Since alcohol addiction is a constant condition, individuals who have this finding regularly need to center around backslide avoidance for whatever remains of life. In any case, they don't need to do that work inside the dividers of a treatment group. They may get the assistance they require inside the urban areas and states in which they live. Care groups give individuals understanding companions and progressing support, in chapel cellars, the group focuses, and open offices scattered the whole way across the nation. Here, individuals can...