Philippine E-Journals

Contextualizing Drug Addiction from Psychological Needs Perspective: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Argel B. Masanda | Arnel Diego | Rufino Oliva | Jennifor Aguilar

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

Drug addiction is a worldwide phenomenon that specifically besets the global society a great deal such that the government waged war against it. While eradicating illicit drugs entirely is quite challenging, this study aims to look at it eruditely from the lens of psychology by investigating the associated "needs" that push people towards drug addiction. The study performed a series of focused group discussions with 22 stakeholders of Mega Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, one of the biggest in the country, consisting of ten Persons Who Use Drugs (PWUDs) and two of their close relatives, three reformed users, one psychologist, two psychometricians, two nurses, and two social workers. Data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Trustworthiness was secured through triangulation methods ("member checking," "peer debriefing," "audit trailing," and literature review). Results yielded 35 various themes grouped accordingly to 16 subordinate themes and finally, three superordinate themes. Overall, the data showed that drug addiction might be best viewed in terms of psychologically-oriented needs themed into three dynamics: intrapersonal – those factors that originated from within the PWUDs, interpersonal – those factors that relate to the PWUDs' interaction (or lack thereof) with others, and milieu-related – those factors that refer to the PWUDs' macro-level socio-economic situations that affect their efforts against, predisposes them to, and perpetuate the illicit drug use. In conclusion, the nature of drug addiction, even from the psychological viewpoint, considerably has multi-layered and -faceted underpinnings. Pertinent recommendations as to how these data can be used for further practice were elucidated.