Introduction: Psychoactive substance abuse is a serious social and health problem of the developed world. A patient, who is dependent on psychoactive substances, is arrogant, self-important, manipulative, angry and secretive, has no limits, feels betrayed, is anxious, emotionally numb and does not uphold agreements. Treatment therefore poses a problem and is often unsuccessful. The syndrome of psychoactive substance dependence is also characterised by the behavioural pattern of the patient, through their dependence, changing the priority of other behaviours to which they used to attribute a higher value. Purpose: Based on the professional literature to present the healthcare of a patient abusing psychoactive substances according to individual activities of daily living and to present the most important measures of nurses. Methods: The descriptive method was used when writing this diploma thesis. The literature was reviewed using CINAHL and PubMed databases and expert books. The material was further explored using the Digital Library of the University of Ljubljana (DiKul) and the COBIB.SI bibliographic/catalogue database of Slovenian libraries. References published from 2006 to 2016 were considered. Expert, original and transparent scientific articles were used. The search for the material began in August 2016 and lasted until December 2016. Discussion and conclusion: Healthcare of a patient abusing psychoactive substances is very complex. Important parts are the knowledge and training of nurses and other health professionals who come into contact with the patient. The nurse plays a key role, as nurses are primarily those exposed to patients who are dependent on psychoactive substances. For all main activities of daily living communication is important, which has to be learned, trained and used. Already during education, the importance of mental health should be emphasised and the use of knowledge in practice encouraged, as this is the only way to provide comprehensive and high-quality healthcare.
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