An expert in jihadism at the University of Granada has said drones won’t be efficient or enough to prevent Al Qaeda attacks in Europe and USA.
 
Professor Javier Jord n Enamorado said that unmanned aerial vehicles are inefficient to prevent new terrorist attacks against Europe and the USA, but admitted that they could be employed in the short and medium term to undermine Al-Qaeda and the Taliban leadership and its operating capacity in Pakistan.

This is the conclusion exposed in an article recently published in the Newsletters of the Real Instituto Elcano.
 
Jord n said the employment of armed drones to undermine Al-Qaeda’s capacity was an option that was already being considered before the 9/11 attacks.
 
They started to be operated at the start of the intervention in Afghanistan, although it was Obama’s administration that finally launched drone attacks in Pakistan, which have gained a very significant intensity.
 
Professor Jord n stressed on «the lack of reprisals from Al-Qaeda in response to CIA’s strategy of eliminating their leaders».
 
Jord n noted that, in 2009, the number of attacks by armed unmanned aircraft vehicles was higher than that launched in 2004 and 2008 -53 against 43-. In September 2010, the number of attacks already exceeded the total number of attacks launched in 2010 (69).
 
Currently, most of the drones flying in Afghanistan belong to the US Air Force and perform military tasks -route and facility protection, infantry support, etc.
 
These CIA-operated vehicles employed in Pakistan are of a different type. Their main aim is eliminating Al-Qaeda’s key leaders and the Taliban insurgency, and their activities are secret.
 
CIA’s attacks have caused intense controversy within Pakistani society, which explains Islamabad’s administration ambiguity.
 
On the one hand, Pakistani’s government has openly condemned what they consider a violation of their sovereignity, while at the same time, they are allowing drones to use their air space and the airfield of Shamsi, which belongs to the Pakistani Air Force, Javier Jord n states in his article.
 
Simultaneously, the legality of these actions is also being questioned in the United States and other countries, he concludes in his article.

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A study conducted at the University of Granada has found that 50 pc of patients with bipolar disorder suffer some type of work, social and family disability, and approximately 20 pc present some disorder at the three levels.
 
The research study analyzed the factors associated to higher work, social and family disabilities in a sample of 108 patients suffering from bipolar disorder.

This research revealed that work disability -that is, difficulty to perform normal job duties- in these patients was associated to high recurrence of maniac episodes, as well as to recurrent psychiatric hospitalization -high-intensity episodes-, depression and low educational levels. Furthermore, nicotinic dependency -strong addiction to tobacco- can be more disabling in patients with bipolar disorder than depression.
 
Luis Guti‚rrez Rojas, a member of the Research Group of Psychiatry Research and Neuroscience of the University of Granada states that social disability -difficulty to establish relations out of the family and to achieve social integration- in these patients is associated to higher hospitalization rates, episodes of depression and active depression symptoms.
 
«Receiving social support is associated to lower social disability in these patients,» said the author.

The University of Granada researcher added that, to avoid disability in patients with bipolar disorder «recurrence of depressive and maniac episodes must be avoided, and physicians should treat these episodes promptly to avoid hospitalization».

Rojas stated that dependency to tobacco -apart from serious physical sequels- is associated to a worse bipolar disorder prognosis. Simultaneously, social support should be improved or sought for patients deprived of it.
 
Alcoholism is especially conflictive at family level, and alcohol is the most abused substance in patients with bipolar disorder.
 
«Detecting alcohol abuse in patients is specially important to improve family relations,» added author.
 
The study has been published in the prestigious journal Psychiatry Research.

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