He Dr. Santi From his blog Reflections of a Tanned Pediatrician he provides us, once again, with relevant and interesting information. This is the questionnaire, developed by the Children's Hospital of Boston, Carlos (CRAFFT). The objective of the paper is to help detect drugs, alcohol and marijuana mainly in adolescents. And the questions are the simplest and apparently innocent although they are enough to identify if the child at home uses drugs, that is, it carries out a consumption such that if it stopped doing so, withdrawal symptoms would appear. They are also considered drugs because they affect the nervous system.
The test facilitates the relationship with the doctor and allows young people to be convinced of the risks of their behavior by trying to guide them to reduce or reduce consumption. And is that drug use by adolescents is a serious public health problem. Apparently the high consumption of drugs such as alcohol, cannabis and cocaine, is done at increasingly early ages With the consequences it generates. In the blog of Dr. Santi, the stages through which drugs are used are explained: curiosity, learning, search, worry and destruction. It is a good time to also remember the article in which we commented on the states of pain and that although we focused it then on learning we can dedicate it to almost any activity and drugs are no exception.
Avoiding drug use among teenagers is everyone's job. When we mentioned the Spectrum anniversary the other day, I read a comment from someone who spoke that thanks to him he was able to get rid of the drug and a certain death like the one some of his friends had. And that is perhaps what we need: many tools, distractions, content, participation and leadership to get drugs are not a resource to fall to quench curiosity.
I recommend checking out the CARLOS questionnaire. I have included the first part in the image that illustrates the article. It is very easy to follow and ensures fast results. I find it very direct and robust and for a medical professional accustomed to dealing with young people it has to be very simple to analyze the characteristics of the interlocutor to make a correct diagnosis. The important thing afterwards is to identify the stage in which the young person is and act accordingly.
Children in the field of Peques and Más are much smaller than those who begin to discover drugs. In any case as parents we have to be attentive and provide education, training, manage children's expectations and keep track of the contacts and relationships they maintain. That is why the use of social networks may be a good thing because while they are practicing with likes, +1, tequieromucho and other current language do not use drugs.
