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Introduction. This paper analyses the evolution of antisocial behavior within the context of representative cross-sectional studies in student population from Mexico City. Surveys with students have collected data about substance use and related factors. The latter is associated with antisocial behavior and delinquency, eating disorders, risk sexual behavior, and suicide attempt. Statistics on younger offenders show an increased number of subjects presented before law institutions, meaning that they have been prosecuted somehow (there were 2623 cases in 1999, and 3506 in 2003). At the same time, there is a decrease in the age for committing these faults which are becoming more serious; a larger number of homicides, raping, and carrying weapons have been reported. The objective of this paper is to present tendencies of antisocial behavior through data obtained from three different representative surveys in junior high school and high school students from Mexico City (1997, 2000, and 2003). Surveys were held by the Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatria Ramón de la Fuente and by the Secretaria de Educación Pública. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Inhalant use among various populations in Mexico occurs within the context of its legality, inadequate health regulation and supervision of its production and sales, high availability and low cost, combined with the pleasurable effects of inhaling, which vary according to the context and users. Objective This paper describes the social practices involved in the co-construction of inhalant use contexts of two groups of Mexican middle school students and their reported effects. Method Photo elicitation methodology was used, with two videotapes produced by students on school sociality practices where inhalants we are used and then analyzed in discussion groups. Results The theoretical categorization of the data was performed using Atlas. ti software. It was found that although the students inhaled toluene, only one of the students experienced dizziness and headaches, while another classmate felt sleepy. The other video was different; students got high, experiencing euphoria, emotional disinhibition and hallucinations. Dizziness, pain and drowsiness seem largely determined by toluene and alcohol use, whereas the different effects appear to be caused by the sociality of the contexts of inhalant use, students' subjectivity and their length of consumption. Discussion and conclusion It is argued that students enjoy inhalant use because getting high reinforces their sociality. The article concludes that inhalant use should be discouraged by incorporating the agency and subjectivity of youth, without neglecting the macro-social factors involved in the production, marketing and regulation of inhalants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consumption of substances with addictive potential is a relevant health problem. In Mexico, the abuse is spreading and the use of services is unfrequent. To extend the offer and accessibility to treatment means to increase the coverage and to guarantee that efficient and effective models are used to treat the patients. The aim of the paper was to learn what has been investigated in this respect; a systematic review of the studies was undertaken to evaluate the treatment research through clinical trials. Methods A review of the published literature from 1980 to 2010 in databases and specialized documentation centers was undertaken. Reports of clinical trials to evaluate interventions for the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and drugs were included. The criteria proposed by CONSORT were used as indicators. Results Two hundred and twenty publications were located on treatment in Mexico, of which only 26 (11.8 %) corresponded to clinical trials to evaluate the impact of different interventions. The most used type of treatment was the cognitive-behavioral brief one, followed by its combination with therapy of replacement, pharmacological therapy and individual psychotherapy or group therapy. Trials also included evaluation of motivational brief therapy, the program «La familia enseñante» (teaching family) and psychotherapy, as well as the therapy centered on solutions. Discussion Most of the clinical trials localized do not comply with the criteria or do it partially. Additionally they have short scopes due to the limited size of the samples. The results reveal that the reports published of investigations are very scanty to evaluate programs of treatment. There is a need to implement programs of treatment directed to specific populations and to the use of different types of drugs, and to evaluate the interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the evaluation of the effectiveness of a selective prevention on drug use in adolescents, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior by Azjen. To develop this program, different theoretical models were evaluated considering their suitability to the institutional context in which it will be implemented. The criteria used to select a model that could be useful as a basis to design and evaluate a preventive intervention for drug use included: a) incorporation of protective and risk factors that could be malleable; b) consistency, parsimony and theoretical economy; c) a demonstrated explanatory and predictive capacity; d) empirical effectiveness; e) practical applicability. One of the models that complies with these requirements is the Model of Planned Behavior by Azjen, which proposes that the most immediate causes for drug use are the intentions of the subject to consume them or not. These intentions are determinated by the «attitudes» toward drug use, by the normative beliefs or «subjective norm» and by the Perceived Behavior Control. Attitudes toward the behavior are a person's overall evaluation of the behavior (i.e drug use) and the corresponding positive or negative judgments about it. The normative beliefs or subjective norms are a person's own estimate of social pressure to use or not to use drugs. Subjective norms have two interacting components: beliefs about how other people, who may be significant to the person, would like them to behave (normative beliefs), and the positive or negative judgments about each belief (outcome evaluations). Perceived behavioral control is the magnitude to which a person feels able to carry out the behavior. It includes two aspects: how much control a person has over the behavior; and how confident a person feels about being able to perform or not the behavior. It is determined by control beliefs about the power of both situational and internal factors to inhibit or facilitate the performance of the behavior. Perceived behavioral control, the last element introduced in the theory, along with the attitude to conduct, and the subjective norm, contribute, all of them, to predict the behavior intention. Generally speaking, there is important empirical evidence concerning the predictive and explicative capacity of this model in different populations. Once the theoretical model was chosen, indicators related to constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior were elaborated adapting these constructs to the features of middle education Mexican population by means of a series of interviews with focal groups. Based on these indicators, a scale was constructed to prove the explanatory capacity of the theoretical model in Mexican population. The reliability and validity of this self-applied questionnaire was proved. Once this was done, based on these antecedents, the model was adapted in a practical sense. This means that the content, objectives and techniques for a preventive intervention were developed. This preventive intervention was piloted and then evaluated through the aforementioned scale. The program included attitudinal and normative components, conformed by informative strategies and persuasive messages directed to an attitudinal change, as well as the development of strategies of behavioral control focused on social abilities that included components derived from social learning theory, and a series of cognitive behavioral techniques accorded to the Planned Behavioral Theory. It was expected a reduction in the drugs use intention by means of a change of drug use favorable beliefs as well as reinforcing unfavorable beliefs of drug use. It was also tried to change the perception about the magnitude of drug users in the subject's immediate surroundings and on its perception about social acceptance or tolerance for drugs. Also it was tried to increase the perception of self control, in order to the develop behavioral control skills to refuse the offer of drugs. The first sessions (devoted to work on subjective norm) were directed to create an interest in the participants regarding to their relation with favorable situations to drug consumption, and to modify their perception about the real magnitude of drug use and about approval and social tolerance to them, both topics frequently overestimated for some adolescents. These sessions were also devoted to identifying beliefs associated with drug use and the value that participants give to these beliefs, in order to question those that are established upon false premises. The next sessions (devoted to perceived behavioral control) had as an objective to learn appropriated behavioral responses to confront risk situations, in order to increase the perception of self-control in those circumstances. This was achieved by means of modeling, essay and reinforcing techniques. This model was designed to be applied in groups no greater than 15 persons, twice a week in five sessions of 50 minutes each. The program was applied by professional personnel such as psychologists or social workers with previous experience in drugs use prevention. The program was implemented in three groups (one for each grade) of five high schools in Mexico City and was applied to three groups of school, randomly chosen; other three groups, in the same grades, were used as control groups. The groups were randomly chosen. Other three groups, in the same grades, were used as comparison groups. Then, the final sample was composed by 250 participants (96 from intervened groups and 154 from comparison groups) from 12 to 15 years old, and with slightly more men than women, but equivalent for cases and control. The results showed that the intervened group had a statistical significant reduction in the intention of drugs use. On the contrary, the comparative group showed an increasing intention to use them. With respect to the set of variables that predicted the behavioral intention, the perceived behavioral control stands out as the variable that had the greatest change. There were no significant differences in pre-post measures in the control group. Differences between pre-post measurements were also contrasted between both groups using a Student's t test that showed significant differences in perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention variables. Finally, in order to get a greater control on the test scores, an ANCOVA analysis was applied using the post-test scores as dependent variable and the pre-test scores as covariables. This analysis was useful to corroborate the significance of the drug use intention in the future, mainly in situations that require an amount of self-control, while attitude and normative variables did not show significative changes. Outcomes confirmed the pertinence to give greater resources (time, quantity, and complexity of activities, didactic materials, etc.) to the sessions devoted to developing behavioral control skills. These results can be considered satisfactory, because the main objective of the program was to reduce the intention to use drugs; however, it is also necessary to strengthen the attitudinal and normative components. It is necessary to consider that the variable «subjective norm» obtained the lowest levels in confidence, possibly because of the use of self-reported answers in a variable so sensitive to the influence of social elements. For this reason, it is necessary to develop questions that diminish this element that, according to Doll and Azjen, can explain, even a 5% of variance in «behavioral intention». Finally, it must be considered that this evaluation shows the effectiveness of the program to achieve the expected changes in behavioral intention variable only in controlled situations. It is necessary to investigate if it is possible to obtain similar results in more usual conditions and with other populations. This means that as well as to grant the internal validity of the evaluation it is also necessary to establish its external validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human groups make up for themselves, for the others and for the events they live explanations that, although not scientific, determine the practices that regulate their behavior. In the case of marijuana consumption, the representations of young people in particular and society in general influence the decision about whether or not to continue consuming. The perception of risk associated with consumption by high school students dropped from 60% in 1994 to 36.9% in 2004, which backs up the relationship between high consumption and low risk perception. Cannabis is the illegal drug with the highest indexes of consumption in the world with an increasing growth rate, to which we may add the alarming reduction in the age when people begin consuming it. This research paper is concerned with the effects of consumption on cognitive processes in school and social performance: a drop in performance, more problems getting along with others, absenteeism and drop out. The study aims to know how low marihuana doses affect cognitive ability in post-primary students. There are no studies concerned with the effect of marihuana in non-patient students (i.e. not diagnosed with addictive behavior and not considered socially as drug addicts). Material and methods Sample: The sample comes from high school students in public schools, private subsidized schools and private paying schools. The sample was stratified by non-proportional affixation, considering the sex, course and social economic level variables, and was made up of 304 students in high schools of the Metropolitan Area (Santiago), belonging to low, medium, and high socioeconomic groups (determined by dependence and the city in which the school is located). The research is descriptive, not experimental, ex post facto. Instruments: Group application to the entire sample (n=304) a) Psychosocial evaluation and consumption questionnaire, abbreviated and adapted, aimed at the collection of demographic data, consumption behaviors and other required information. The young people are identified with a number in order to ensure their anonymity and thus promote the truth of the responses. b) Domino Test (D-48): Evaluates non-verbal intelligence. It controls differences caused by social and educative factors. It is applied on a group basis in order to discard subjects whose IQ is lower than average, regardless of consumption. Individual application to the consumer group and the non-consumer group. a) Rey Complex Figure Test: Widely used in recent studies on the effects of drugs on teenagers. Evaluates neuropsychological functioning. b) Benton Test: Evaluates current intellectual efficiency from the attention span, concentration and immediate retention. c) Verbal memory (Rey): Evaluates immediate verbal memory. Results General: The total results for the three schools polled and evaluated show that 14.5% of the students declared that they consumed marijuana at least four times during the last month. The proportion in the three establishments is not distributed in a homogenous fashion, but is concentrated in the low social economic level school (27.8%), with the lowest percentage in the high social economic level school. With regard to sex, 11% are girls and 15.7% are boys. Although a higher proportion of the boys consumed, the consumption in girls shows a sustained increase in recent years. A significant group is beginning to consume marijuana at age 15 or even earlier. The perception of risk associated with frequent consumption and the possibility of quitting smoking on a voluntary basis show significant differences: among consumers (C), 51% consider that there is no risk or negative effect in consumption, while only 10% of nonconsumers (NC) share this perception. Protective factors or those associated with risk The family.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results of the information Reporting System on Drugs, which describe the trends of cocaine use for 1987-2003 among users between 15 and 24 years old in Mexico City. It also describes the results of the evaluation carried out by the IRSD in June 2003 which include the sociodemographic characteristics of users, pattern of use, associated problems and slang words used to refer to this substance, according to the reports of the evaluated cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]