Ramesh Babu1 , Gumaste A2, Pattar M3
BACKGROUND: History of drug abuse which included Gutka/cannabis and not alcohol intake has been found in psychiatric patients attending Psychiatry outpatients.
AIMS: To find out prevalence of cannabis/Gutka misuse among psychiatric patients, to find out sociodemographic variables, and pattern of psychiatric disorders among cannabis/gutka misusers.
METHOD: Out of 150 psychiatric patients 18 were identified for cannabis/gutka misuse. These patients were examined and categorized according to socio-demographic characteristics and types of mental disorders diagnosed by using DSM-IV.
RESULTS: Most of the psychiatric patients who had history of cannabis/Gutka intake were male (96.4%) and 76% were in age group of 15- 35 years. 48.6% bipolar type-1, 23% schizophreniform psychosis, 14% had drug induced psychosis and 1.4% psychosis NOS patients were found in this study
CONCLUSIONS: Young male patients were more commonly involved in drug misuse and most of them belong to rural area.
