Abstract: Im Jahr 2010 wurden rund 27‘000 Personen wegen einer Alkoholabhängigkeit oder einer Alkoholvergiftung in einem Schweizer Spital behandelt. Sowohl Abhängigkeit wie auch Fälle von Vergiftungen werden mit zunehmendem Lebensalter häufiger festgestellt. Sucht Schweiz hat im Auftrag des Bundesamtes für Gesundheit die alkoholbedingten Spitaleinweisungen von 2003 bis 2010 analysiert und dabei nicht nur Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene, sondern alle Altersgruppen untersucht.

Abstract: Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug, however its effects on cognitive functions underling safe driving remain mostly unexplored. Our goal was to evaluate the impact of cannabis on the driving ability of occasional smokers, by investigating changes in the brain network involved in a tracking task. The subject characteristics, the percentage of D9-Tetrahydrocannabinol in the joint, and the inhaled dose were in accordance with real-life conditions. Thirty-one male volunteers were enrolled in this study that includes clinical and toxicological aspects together with functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and measurements of psychomotor skills. The fMRI paradigm was based on a visuo-motor tracking task, alternating active tracking blocks with passive tracking viewing and rest condition. We show that cannabis smoking, even at low D9-Tetrahydrocannabinol blood concentrations, decreases psychomotor skills and alters the activity of the brain networks involved in cognition. The relative decrease of Blood Oxygen Level Dependent response (BOLD) after cannabis smoking in the anterior insula, dorsomedial thalamus, and striatum compared to placebo smoking suggests an alteration of the network involved in saliency detection. In addition, the decrease of BOLD response in the right superior parietal cortex and in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex indicates the involvement of the Control Executive network known to operate once the saliencies are identified. Furthermore, cannabis increases activity in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortices, suggesting an increase in self-oriented mental activity. Subjects are more attracted by intrapersonal stimuli (“self”) and fail to attend to task performance, leading to an insufficient allocation of task-orientedre sources and to sub-optimal performance. These effects correlate with the subjective feeling of confusion rather than with the blood level of D9-Tetrahydrocannabinol. These findings bolster the zero-tolerance policy adopted in several countries that prohibits the presence of any amount of drugs in blood while driving.

Abstract: Die Schulsozialarbeit ist aufgrund ihrer speziellen Position prädestiniert zur Frühintervention. Ihre relative Unabhängigkeit, ihre Position zwischen den Disziplinen, der gute Zugang zur Schulleitung und unkomplizierte Abläufe erleichtern es, die schwierigen Entwicklungen von SchülerInnen in einem frühen Stadium zu erfassen und angemessen darauf zu reagieren.