The article “Perception of control over cocaine use and stages of change” is a contribution from various researchers; Maximiliano C. Fanton, and Susana C. Azzollini from the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Argentina, and Javier A. Ayi, Alejandra G. Sio, and Gonzalo E. Mora from the Centers Interventions Relief Community, Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina on the observation and opinion of the behavioral aspects of people who try to control their need on drug abuse and the behavioral reflections when they are under the influence of drugs, especially Cocaine.
Supposition of Lack of Control over Cocaine Use
The researchers in their study presented the investigation and probabilities of controlled drug use in cocaine-addicted patients along with the motivational procedure that was involved in the different stages of changes. Narcotics anonymous is a 12 step program in which the researchers agree that the procedure of change starts when the drug users get completely addicted to the drug, lose will power and find themselves incapable to control this behavior. The abusers experience a low level of control over drug even if they are aware of their behavior, compared to the users who have no objective to take action in the predictable future.
Accessing and Evaluating the Perception. As quoted by the researchers Tiffany, Henningfield, Haertzen and Singleton stated that cocaine craving could be accessed through multidimensional scale known as Cocaine Craving Questionnaire (CCQ) that included dimensions and features to the loss of consumption control and expectancy of difficulty to avoid consumption during availability of Cocaine. The other possible way to access the perception was to gauge the beliefs and thoughts that would relate to the perception. The tests to be conducted on the drug users does not only evaluate the present perception of control, but also displays the
short term and long term anticipation of control drug use. The cognitive model proved that the beliefs regarding the real control of consumption activities were the addictive beliefs as they justified and entitled cocaine use. It can also be noted that the goal of Addictive Control Belief Inventory (ACBI) is to operationalize the present and the future to control the cocaine over use.
Experimental Methods
A few inventories were used to find and differentiate the likely presence of statistical importance on the perception of control over drug use that related to the motivational stage. The inventories were in Spanish versions from ACBI, the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment Scale (URICA), the dimensions from CCQ, and a survey form for categorizing subjects according to phase of change. About 140 cocaine addicts comprising of 76 men and 34 women were testified using these inventories in 4 various healing centers. They were diagnosed with cocaine dependence disorders. The addicts with insanity and schizophrenia were not diagnosed. The experiment did not provide results on frequency, concerns of consumption and the consumed amount. According to ACBI the results derived from this experiment presented a shared belief about the prospects and present perceptions of controlled drug use. Likert scale was used to rate these results in terms of agreement.
Discussion
