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. 2022 Aug 22:13:843785.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.843785. eCollection 2022.

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

Abdulaziz A Alodhayani  1 , Khalid M Almutairi  2 , Jason M Vinluan  2 , Wadi B Alonazi  3 , Hatim Gormallah Alzahrani  4 , Mohammed Ali Batais  1 , Fatmah Mohammed Kaki  5 , Turky H Almigbal  1 , Saad Alsaad  1
Affiliations

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

Abdulaziz A Alodhayani et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Saudi Arabia; drug abuse; female; psychiatric patients; retrospective study.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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