ABSTRACT

The aim and purpose of the Bachelor's thesis was to gather information about substance abuse for those working in the Accident and Emergency department. This thesis shows how a patient who is intoxicated can be taken care of and what kind of things nurses have to know about the psychoactive substances. In this thesis psychoactive substance means substances, that are used by a person to become intoxicated. In this thesis they are amphetamine, cocaine, khat, opiates, cannabis and LSD.

This thesis includes the most common intoxicant problems in Finland. This thesis discusses the issues of an intoxicated patient arriving in hospital emergency room and how nurses can take care of the patient. A patient who uses alcohol or psychoactive substances can come to a hospital, because they have some infection or some accident has happened. Also withdrawal symptoms or drug or medicine overdose can be reasons why a patient comes to the hospital.

The thesis discusses adults who use alcohol or psychoactive substances. The thesis does not include care of under aged persons or how alcohol or psychoactive substances affect pregnant women and fetuses.

This Bachelor´s thesis is a literature review. In this thesis the source material includes medical articles and nursing textbooks. All the source material are newer than ten years old. This topic was chosen because emergency nursing and intoxicated patients are interesting and new knowledge emerges all the time in this subject.