Socio Demographics of Drug Dependents

Abstract

Objective: The study was designed to examine the split up of social and demographic variables of drug dependent patients approaching the hospital for treatment so that the risk factors may be determined. Study design: cross sectional study. Place and duration of study:  The study was conducted indoor patients Drug Abuse Treatment Center of Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, DHQ Hospital, Faisalabad from Jan-2007 to July-2008. Method: 588 patients dependent on different drugs participated in this study through purposive convenient sampling technique. Personal, Social, and Demographic variables were recorded on a demographic sheet. The results were obtained by using SPSS 17. Results: Descriptive statistics show that out of 588, 584 patients (99.2%) were males, 64.8% were between 20 to 35 years of age. 360 (61.1%) were married, while 451 (76.6%) lived in their own houses. 374 patients (83.7%) belonged to the lower or lower middle socio economic status, 242 patients (41.1%) were illiterate, 125 patients (21.2%) had primary level education, and 102 (17.3%) had middle level education. 283 (48.1%)  patients were laborers (half were skilled) while 100 patients (17%) were unemployed. 410 patients (69.6%) used heroin, 259 (44%) used cannabis, while 162 (27.5%) patients were poly drug abusers. 430 (74%) patients told peer pressures to be the reason of first drug abuse. Conclusion: As illiteracy, low education, unemployment, labor as profession, and peer pressure are the key features of drug abusers so parents, health professionals, and policy makers should take these as risk factors and focus upon these population segments to spread awareness and take measures of control.