[ad_1]
_____________________________________________ ___
February 9, 1446
August 13, 2024 AD
____________________
Drug consumption and addiction in Israel have risen sharply since the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Hamas movement on October 7, according to health workers.
“We are witnessing a significant increase in addiction and mental health in the natural response to psychological stress and the search for comfort. The intake of various addictive sedatives, whether pharmaceutical or prescription, illegal drugs or alcohol, and sometimes addictive behaviors such as gambling,” psychiatrist Shaul Lev-Ran, founder of the Israel Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Netanya, central Israel, told AFP.
To confirm this conclusion, his team conducted a study that included about 1,000 people representing all sectors of the Israeli population, which revealed “a link between indirect exposure to the events of October 7 and an increase in the consumption of addictive substances” of about 25%.
One in four Israelis increased their consumption of addictive products, while by 2022, before the attacks, only one in seven Israelis suffered from a drug use disorder.
According to the study conducted in November and December, after the attacks and the subsequent fighting, half of the survivors increased their use of addictive drugs, and the rate reached 33% among those displaced.
In Israel, use of sleeping pills and painkillers increased by 180% and 70%, respectively.
The doctor said his patient asked him for “something” and argued: “My son is fighting in Gaza and I have to sleep or I won’t be able to go to work.”
Dr. Lev-Ran concluded that based on the study, “it is clear that we are on the cusp of an epidemic, which indicates that a large portion of the population will tend to become dependent” on addictive substances.
_________________________________________ _________
[ad_2]
Source link
