“Where There Are Stars, There Is Also Darkness”: Young Icelandic Men’s Experience of Prescription Drug Misuse
Misuse of prescription drugs is a public health problem in many places around the world, including Iceland. It is considered most common among 18- to 25-year-olds, various risk factors and motives explain this trend. The purpose of this study was to examine young Icelandic men’s experience of prescr...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8829793 2023-05-15T16:51:23+02:00 “Where There Are Stars, There Is Also Darkness”: Young Icelandic Men’s Experience of Prescription Drug Misuse Arnarsdottir, Andrea Yr Johnsen, Arni Thorsson, Kjartan Sigurdardottir, Sigrun 2022-02-07 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8829793/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35130784 https://doi.org/10.1177/15579883221074794 en eng SAGE Publications http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8829793/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35130784 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/15579883221074794 © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). CC-BY-NC Am J Mens Health Original Article Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1177/15579883221074794 2022-02-13T01:56:18Z Misuse of prescription drugs is a public health problem in many places around the world, including Iceland. It is considered most common among 18- to 25-year-olds, various risk factors and motives explain this trend. The purpose of this study was to examine young Icelandic men’s experience of prescription drug misuse. Participants in this study were seven Icelandic males, 18–26 years old, mean age was 20.9. Data were collected through 14 interviews and then processed using a qualitative methodological approach based on Vancouver’s school of phenomenology. The overriding theme of the study “Where there are stars, there is also darkness” refers to the common thread in participants’ experiences of misuse of prescription drugs that were initially positive but quickly turned negative. Four main themes were identified: influence factors, reasons, onset, and continued drug misuse. The influencing factors were social influence, social group, lack of knowledge, and curiosity. The main reasons for the drug misuse were to suppress distress, improve capacity and efficiency, or have fun and avoid boredom. The onset of prescription drug misuse was characterized by quick fixes, misuse of one’s own medication or medication from a friend/family member. Continued misuse was characterized by a vicious circle, black market, medical visits on false pretenses, and symptoms of dependence and addiction. It is necessary to highlight this public health problem that prescription drug misuse among young Icelandic males appear to be and it needs to be considered as a multifarious problem as the results indicate that its nature is truly complex. Text Iceland PubMed Central (PMC) American Journal of Men's Health 16 1 155798832210747 |
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Original Article Arnarsdottir, Andrea Yr Johnsen, Arni Thorsson, Kjartan Sigurdardottir, Sigrun “Where There Are Stars, There Is Also Darkness”: Young Icelandic Men’s Experience of Prescription Drug Misuse |
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Original Article |
description |
Misuse of prescription drugs is a public health problem in many places around the world, including Iceland. It is considered most common among 18- to 25-year-olds, various risk factors and motives explain this trend. The purpose of this study was to examine young Icelandic men’s experience of prescription drug misuse. Participants in this study were seven Icelandic males, 18–26 years old, mean age was 20.9. Data were collected through 14 interviews and then processed using a qualitative methodological approach based on Vancouver’s school of phenomenology. The overriding theme of the study “Where there are stars, there is also darkness” refers to the common thread in participants’ experiences of misuse of prescription drugs that were initially positive but quickly turned negative. Four main themes were identified: influence factors, reasons, onset, and continued drug misuse. The influencing factors were social influence, social group, lack of knowledge, and curiosity. The main reasons for the drug misuse were to suppress distress, improve capacity and efficiency, or have fun and avoid boredom. The onset of prescription drug misuse was characterized by quick fixes, misuse of one’s own medication or medication from a friend/family member. Continued misuse was characterized by a vicious circle, black market, medical visits on false pretenses, and symptoms of dependence and addiction. It is necessary to highlight this public health problem that prescription drug misuse among young Icelandic males appear to be and it needs to be considered as a multifarious problem as the results indicate that its nature is truly complex. |
format |
Text |
author |
Arnarsdottir, Andrea Yr Johnsen, Arni Thorsson, Kjartan Sigurdardottir, Sigrun |
author_facet |
Arnarsdottir, Andrea Yr Johnsen, Arni Thorsson, Kjartan Sigurdardottir, Sigrun |
author_sort |
Arnarsdottir, Andrea Yr |
title |
“Where There Are Stars, There Is Also Darkness”: Young Icelandic Men’s Experience of Prescription Drug Misuse |
title_short |
“Where There Are Stars, There Is Also Darkness”: Young Icelandic Men’s Experience of Prescription Drug Misuse |
title_full |
“Where There Are Stars, There Is Also Darkness”: Young Icelandic Men’s Experience of Prescription Drug Misuse |
title_fullStr |
“Where There Are Stars, There Is Also Darkness”: Young Icelandic Men’s Experience of Prescription Drug Misuse |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Where There Are Stars, There Is Also Darkness”: Young Icelandic Men’s Experience of Prescription Drug Misuse |
title_sort |
“where there are stars, there is also darkness”: young icelandic men’s experience of prescription drug misuse |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8829793/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35130784 https://doi.org/10.1177/15579883221074794 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Am J Mens Health |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8829793/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35130784 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/15579883221074794 |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
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CC-BY-NC |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/15579883221074794 |
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American Journal of Men's Health |
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16 |
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1 |
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155798832210747 |
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