JEDDAH, 2 June 2008 — If you notice any unusual behavior in your teenagers such as an unexplained drop in grades, irregular school attendance, impaired short-term memory or red eyes, don’t take it lightly as your child may be taking drugs.
Drug abuse among teenagers is rising, according to Dr. Mounir Soussi, consultant psychiatrist at Al-Amal Hospital in Jeddah. Soussi says patients as young as 12 have been treated at the hospital in a special Adolescent Unit that the hospital had to set up because of the rise of drug abuse in teenagers. Many of the teenage patients began smoking cigarettes as early as six and then went on to do drugs, he said.
“Many of our patients are high school students — girl patients are referred to Jeddah Mental Hospital,” said Soussi.
Adolescent patients in the hospital are admitted to the “Adolescent Inpatient Therapeutic Program,” which has been designed by a prevention outpatient program that emphasizes informing adolescents about the long-term consequences of drug use and building their decision-making skills.
Al-Amal Hospital provides a preventive program for high schools. “We also use a specialized team to give psycho-education and scientific lectures to students from outside the hospital. To build motivation not to use drugs, the program helps students to recognize the multiple ways in which drugs affect students now — socially, emotionally and physically,” said Soussi.
“Teens who smoke are eight times more likely to do drugs,” said Dr. Mahmoud Abdulrehman Mahmoud, a researcher in drug addiction. “Some teens will experiment and stop while others will develop a dependency or addiction, often moving on to more dangerous drugs causing significant harm to themselves and possibly to others.”
