A retrospective analysis of substance use among female psychiatric patients in Saudi Arabia

• Published in: Frontiers in psychology Vol. 13; p. 843785
• Main Authors: Alodhayani, Abdulaziz A., Almutairi, Khalid M., Vinluan, Jason M., Alonazi, Wadi B., Alzahrani, Hatim Gormallah, Batais, Mohammed Ali, Kaki, Fatmah Mohammed, Almigbal, Turky H., Alsaad, Saad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A 22-08-2022
• Subjects: drug abuse; female; psychiatric patients; Psychology; retrospective study; Saudi Arabia
• ISSN: 1664-1078; 1664-1078
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.843785

Objective
This study investigated the prevalence of substance use (SU), and its risk factors, among women attending psychiatric outpatients center in Saudi Arabia.
Design
A retrospective cross-sectional design.
Materials and methods
We reviewed outpatients’ records of 200 female patients with a history of SU from a psychiatric unit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from December 2018 to February 2019. The researchers developed the
pro forma
, and 2 psychiatrists and a family medicine physician validated the form.
Results
The most common and widely used were psychoactive substances (58%), followed by central nervous system (CNS) depressants (22%), and finally cannabinols (9.5%). Overall, the highest substance use was the amphetamine-cannabis-nicotine (ACN) representing nearly half of the illicit items (46.6%), followed by heroine-alcohol-benzodiazepine (16.4%), and with the lowest being benzodiazepine-nicotine (1.7%). There was a significant difference between the single substance and multiple substance use in terms of age (
p
= 0.001), smoking behavior (
p
= 0.001), patients past history (
p
= 0.005), and age of the patient at the start of drug use (
p
= 0.005).
Conclusion
Although the prevalence of substance use among women is low in Saudi Arabia, screening of substance use disorders risks and building a rehabilitation program to control drug dependence are needed.