Representações sociais de dependentes químicos acerca do crack, do usuário de drogas e do tratamento

• Ano de defesa: 2013
• Autor(a) principal: Melo, Juliana Rízia Félix de
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal da Paraí­ba; BR; Química; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Química; UFPB
• Palavras-chave em Português: Crack; Drogas; Dependência química; Teoria das Representações Sociais; Teoria do Núcleo Central; Crack cocaine; Drugs; Drug addiction; Social Representations Theory; Central Nucleus Theory; CIENCIAS EXATAS E DA TERRA::QUIMICA
• Link de acesso: https://repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/handle/tede/7113

Drug abuse and addiction has been regarded as a major public health matter which has transcended social boundaries, leading society to a major concern. In this context, we find crack cocaine, a drug that came up in the 1990 s in Brazil, bringing along strong dependence and rapid damages to its users mental, organic and social health. In order to understand the psycho-social factors that are involved when it comes to its use, we sought to know and analyze the social representations elaborated by drug-addicts in relation to crack cocaine, drug-users and treatment. As a theoretical support, the Social Representations Theory was utilized in the perspective of structural and dimensional approaches. This is a descriptive research of qualitative characteristics which was held in a psychiatric institution in the city of João Pessoa. The sample was made up with 30 under-treatment male crack users. The instruments used were: a socio-demographic questionnaire which was analyzed through the simple frequency calculus and percentages; The Association Free from Words, with the tags crack cocaine , drug users and treatment , analyzed by the program EVOC; and a semi-structured interview, which was analyzed through Bardin s Thematic Content Analysis. Such instruments were applied individually inside the institutional environment, with a recorder and with all ethical precautions that are required for research with humans. A negative representation of crack cocaine was noticed in that it is personalized in the figure of the Devil with powers to destroy its users life and society in general, causing great sadness. Moreover, crack cocaine was perceived as something that takes over the individual thoroughly, causing them to be passive and weak in relation to it. Still, it was concluded that the drug user is accounted as someone not trustable, addicted, valueless, ill, characterless, and held responsible for the destruction of the family. Such an assumption leads to a number of implications, for social representations have a status of truth, guiding the subjects conduct. Thus, this negative representation over themselves may damage these users self-image, affecting their self-esteem and their capacity for fighting against drugs, making it difficult for them to succeed in their treatment as well as their social reinsertion. It was also observed that the treatment s social representation brings up a blaming approach by which the subject is practically considered to be the one guilty for remaining in the condition of addiction. With such results, the need for a change in these social representations was verified, with the comprehension of drug use as a multi-causal phenomenon and the recognition of a drug user as a citizen, with rights, duties and needs. We expect, with this research, to provide scientific data which will help authorities to create public policies turned to this problematic issue.