Understanding Substance Related Issues: A Psychological Perspective

Substance related issues are reflected as a major public health concern worldwide whether a society views substance use/abuse primarily as a moral or legal problem it definitely creates difficulties for the individual using substance as it ceases many facets of life including family, professional, social, psychological and physical. It is estimated that around 2 million people worldwide consume alcohol out of which one third (76.3 million) are likely to have one or more alcoholic disorder (WHO,2002). In context of India prevalence of substance related disorders especially for alcohol related disorders was reported to be 1.30% in adolescents (10 to 17years) and 17.10% in adults (18 to 75 years) (NDDTC, AIIMS, 2018).  Alcohol is attributed to cause about 17% of neuropsychiatric disorders among men in India (Rehm et al, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to explore the theories and models related to the development and prevention of substance related issues. So that a major concern of modern society that is alcoholism, can be understood in a better way and the development of substance related disorders specifically alcohol related disorder can be understood and handled in a better way before this so-called modern behavior (modern lifestyle) develops into a major cause or mortality.