Felt Need and Treatment-seeking Barriers among Substance Abusers in Urban Slum Area in Central India

Abstract

Introduction: Substance abuse is known public health problem in the world. Felt need of treatment and barriers in seeking treatment are important for successful treatment of addictions. Therefore, this study was designed to understand the pattern (type) of substance abuse among residents of urban slum and to study the felt need and barriers for the treatment of substance abuse among substance abusers in urban slum areas of the central India.

Materials and methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in slum area in central India.

Results: The smokeless tobacco (92.5%) and alcohol (70.35%) were the most common substances used in the study population. More than half (60.4%) of study participants were felt the need of de-addiction but in reality very few approached for treatment for their addiction. The most common barriers were unawareness about place of availability of treatment, absence of any health problem and the confidence of handling their own drug problem, and dependency on substance.

Conclusions: There was huge gap in the felt need and actual treatment-seeking practice due to treatment barriers in the treatment of substance abuse.

Keywords: Addiction; felt need of treatment; substance abuse; treatment-seeking barriers.

Figure 1

Pattern (type) of substance abuse. *Numbers in parenthesis are number of study participant. @weed (local terminology for ganja), brown sugar. #All addiction (polysubstance abuse)