Psychosocial aspects, life events, and quality of life of a sample of adolescent males with substance use | ||
| The Scientific Journal of Al-Azhar Medical Faculty, Girls | ||
| Volume 3, Issue 2, May 2019, Pages 483-493 PDF (1.09 M) | ||
| DOI: 10.4103/sjamf.sjamf_65_19 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Reda M Ismail; Rania Hussein; Shaimaa M Arafa; Asmaa M Adel | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Introduction Alcohol and other substance use are on the rise among the young across the globe. Studies indicate that substance-use behaviors generally begin during adolescence. Early initiation and regular use is often associated with negative consequences. Research on adolescents focuses increasingly on features of the family and social background in predicting substance use, such as parenting style, parental substance use, divorce, separation, child abuse, and so on. Aim This study aimed at exploring the effect of various familial and psychosocial risk factors on the development and severity of substance use in a sample of Egyptian adolescents, the associated life events, and their reflection on the quality of life (QoL). Patients and Methods This is a cross-sectional case–control study. It included two groups: the patient group, which included 50 male adolescents from Abbasiya Mental Health Hospital, Cairo, Egypt, from the outpatient clinic of adolescents addiction, between 12 and 19 years of age who were diagnosed as being substance abusers or substance dependents according to the DSM-IV-TR criteria, and the control group, which included 50 age-matched and sex-matched participants with no current psychiatric or neurological disorders. Tools of assessment used were as follows: Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for children and adolescents for clinical diagnosis of substance use disorder, the scoring system of Fahmy and EL-Sherbini for measurement of socioeconomic status, life events stresses questionnaire, and PCASEE questionnaire for QoL for assessment of health status and QoL. Results Overall, 96.6% of the patients were living in medium-level and low-level households, mothers of cases showed more independence in their parenting style, whereas the fathers of the case group were more rejecting than the fathers of the control group, and 72.8% of cases had a positive family history of drug abuse. The most commonly abused substances were tramadol, cannabis, sedatives, hypnotics, alcohol, and heroin. The majority of the studied cases were abusing more than one drug (70%). There is a significant differences between patient and control groups regarding to all life event stressors, including family, economic, study, social, emotional, health, and personal stressors. For assessment of health status and QoL, there were statistically significant differences between patient and control groups regarding physical, cognitive, mood, social, financial, and personal problems. Conclusion The substance use disorders are a major health problem among youth. Tramadol dependency is at the top of all substances abused in Egypt, followed by polysubstances. The findings highlight how family influences subsequent adolescent substance use and how substance use affects all domains of QoL. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Adolescents; life events; quality of life; Substance Use Disorder | ||
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