Sumanth Tarikere Parameshwaraiah1, Vishnuvardhan Gopalkrishna2, Vidhyavathi Malyam3, Asha Chandahalli Sannappa4, Amulya Bhaskara5, Subhashini Shanmugamurthi6, Suha Riyaz7
BACKGROUND
Substance abuse is a cause of deaths, global burden of disease and injury.
Increasing trends of underage substance abuse have shown to be associated with
future substance dependency. Understanding various factors associated with it will
help mitigate the severity and extent of use. In this study, we wanted to find out
the pattern of substance abuse in patients at a de-addiction centre in Bangalore.
METHODS
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 500 male patients admitted to a deaddiction
centre in Bangalore. Information was collected using pre-tested and
structured questionnaire forms and the collected data was analyzed using
statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) v 16.0 software.
RESULTS
The majority of the participants abused alcohol (92.4 %) and nicotine (74.2 %).
40.5 % of the participants initiated alcohol abuse in age groups of 12 – 18 (Years).
Peer pressure (40.4 %) and curiosity (19 %) were observed as the most common
reason for substance abuse. The common reason to seek de-addiction services
was family pressure (22.4 %), physical health problems (14.2 %), family
responsibility (12.4 %) fear of being a social outcast in the community (12 %) and
psychiatric problems (10.6 %). Among the participants, 39.4 % had a family
history of substance abuse and 41 % had a history of psychiatric illness. 47.4 %
reported a history of child abuse.
CONCLUSIONS
Most participants initiated abuse before age of 25 mainly due to peer pressure.
Proper enforcement of rules concerning under-aged substance abuse, proper peer
and familial support, addressing concerns of psychiatric comorbidity and child
abuse can decrease the chances of future dependency and thus lessen the burden
of the problem.
