Implicaciones de la estrategia de reducción de daños en el tratamiento de las adicciones

Abstract

Abstract: Drug use is one of the country's main public health problems, with early onset in adolescence. Some people develop addictive behavior, for which there is appropriate, evidence-based treatment, which necessarily involves total abstinence. However, as part of the drug use process and the multiplicity of physical, psychological, social, familial, and environmental variables, a large number of harmful consequences are generated that warrant intervention beyond the treatment of the addictive behavior itself. Harm reduction is a novel intervention aimed at mitigating immediate harm and contextual situations that promote drug use, to alleviate suffering and facilitate recovery. However, some drug abuse apologists promote harm reduction from a permissive perspective, which validates and permits drug use in adolescents and people with addiction. Scientific evidence clearly demonstrates the strategy's usefulness in the context of a care process, but always, and without a doubt, with the aim of promoting total abstinence if the person has an addiction or is an adolescent.