Psychiatric morbidity in psychoactive substance users-a multicentre study in Hyderabad

Objective: to study the pattern of psychiatric morbidity in psychoactive substance users at sri cowasjee jehangir institute of psychiatry and combined military hospital hyderabad. setting: this descriptive study was done at sir cowasjee jehangir institute of psychiatry and combined military hospital hyderabad simultaneously from 10th jan 2009to 10th july 2009 patients and method: total 150 patients presented with history of psychoactive substance use since last 1 year and showing psychiatric morbidity on pse (urdu version) were selected by non-probability convenient sampling. patients having psychiatric morbidity before substance use were excluded from the study. demographic variables were collected on a semi-structured proforma. psychiatric symptomatology was collected using pse (urdu version). diagnosis of psychiatric morbidity was made by using icd-10 criteria for mental and behavioral disorders due to psychoactive substance use. proportions of psychiatric morbidity were calculated by spss version 10.0. results: out of 150 subjects 72 used cannabis,38 used heroin,alcohol intake in 25 cases,benzodiazepine tablets in 13 cases,gutka in 2 cases. poly drug abuse was found in 30 cases abusing alcohol and benzodiazepines. dependence syndrome (35%) followed by anxiety disorders (22%) acute and transient psychotic episode (39%) was main morbidity in cannabis. dependence syndrome (46%) followed by antisocial personality disorder (10%) depression (25%) and anxiety disorders (16%) were main morbidity in heroin abuse. depression (42%) followed by anxiety disorders (30%),dependence syndrome (10%) and antisocial personality disorder (8%) was main morbidity in alcohol abuse. dependence syndrome (42%) depression (23%) anxiety disorders (20%) dissociative disorder (10%) and deliberate self harm (5%) were psychiatric morbidities in benzodiazepine abuse. conclusion: this study showed that there is significant psychiatric morbidity associated with various types of psychoactive substance abuse. these morbidities not only pose a diagnostic dilemma but also have importance in management and prognosis of psychoactive substance use.