In the months of April and May, dedicated worldwide to the prevention of related risks and diseases respectively to alcohol abuse and smokingthe Ausl of Modena photographs a situation that sees, in 2022, a strong increase of new accesses in his Specialized centers for alcohol and smoking addictionsin line with the increase recorded overall at the regional level.
The increase in 2022, compared to the previous year, is also due to the complete and full recovery of the activities of the Ausl Centers – present in each of the seven districts of the province – compared to the lockdown periods which partially affected 2021 forcing the activity to shrink. But there is also, he explains Clare GabrielliDirector of the Pathological Addiction Program of the Modena Local Health Authority, an aggravation of conditions of discomfort caused by pandemic, whose effects on alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking will be seen from now on. In this context there is a strong action on prevention, with short-lived paths before addiction becomes pathological. Motor activity has also recently been introduced in the path that members of anti-smoking centers take, thanks to the collaboration with the Sports medicine. In Emilia-Romagna it is in fact possible to prescribe and administer motor activity to promote health by contrasting a sedentary lifestyle, prevent pathologies and intervene therapeutically against stabilized chronic pathologies, thus acting in support of programs to combat smoking and addictions.
- Clare Gabrielli
“The Ausl Alcohol Centers take care of people with complex and multidisciplinary programmes, thanks to a team of doctors, nurses, psychologists and operators in the educational area for the treatment and rehabilitation of addiction, but interventions are also put in place’ brevi’ that affect potentially risky behaviour – explains Clare Gabrielli –. The use of psychoactive substances, such as alcohol or tobacco, involves a series of risks and produces a series of damages in people’s vital areas which can often be highlighted before real addiction sets in and can seriously compromise health on other levels: directly (cancer, cardiovascular risk) or indirectly (road accidents, domestic violence and accidents, passive smoking)”.
For what concern tobacco smoke they are always very attended i intensive courses organized free of charge by the Ausl Centers throughout the province: for each course 10-12 meetings are structured over 2 months, in an atmosphere of mutual help among the participants, strategies are learned to achieve and maintain sobriety from smoking through techniques cognitive-behavioral and motivational. According to follow-up data, about 70% of the course participants were able to quit smoking.
- Gustavo Savino
The approach is multidisciplinary, with the involvement of doctors and psychologists and in the District of Modena a path of motor activity adapted for smokers included in the path of specialized centers and managed by the Sports medicine. The program may be extended to the other districts of the province in the next few years.
“Motor activity can and must be integrated into everyone’s lifestyle and, in the case of the smoker who intends to give up his smoking habit, physical activity can play a decisive role – explains Gustavo SavinoDirector of Sports Medicine at the Modena Local Health Authority –. Mechanisms underlying physical exercise that intervene on weight maintenance and muscle tone, on cardiocirculatory and pulmonary well-being and, in particular, with the production of neurotransmitters with anxiolytic action on the modulation of mood (serotonin), can support in important way the path of combating addiction to cigarette smoke with a direct and documented action on the motivation itself to pursue the goal”.
Prevention in schools
With a view to preventionthe actions of the Local Health Authority are therefore aimed not only at treatment and rehabilitation, but also at intercepting i risky behaviors and problematic consumption which can lead to damage to health and, in the most serious cases, to pathological addiction. Among the riskiest behaviors of alcohol consumption is the so-called ‘binge drinking’the excessive consumption of alcohol in a very short time, a mode particularly widespread among young. This modality is dangerous both because it directly produces acute intoxication (with risk of overdose), and for the physical damage it produces to various organs and tissues (mucous membranes of the digestive tract), as well as for the indirect damages that can result (behavioural alterations, accidents road traffic, relational damage). And precisely to raise awareness among young people about the risks associated with alcohol abuse, but also about risky health behaviors, the Pathological Addiction sector continued the project in the 2022-2023 school year ‘I choose’ in secondary schools. I’m over 1000 studentsthroughout the province, who participated through in-depth meetings on various topics – alcohol, smoking, gambling, drugs – conducted by Ausl experts with the involvement of peer educators, students selected and trained precisely to raise awareness of other students.