ABSTRACT
Objectives
Substance abuse is a serious public health problem affecting both individual and community. Drug use-related deaths and disability have been shown to increase steadily. Due to the high novelty-seeking behavior and frequency of engaging in risky behavior, adolescents are more risky in terms of substance abuse. However, in our country, the data on the sociodemographic characteristics of adolescents receiving treatment due to substance abuse are limited. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of adolescents who received treatment in the Child and Adolescent Substance Treatment Unit inpatient service.
Materials and Methods
The records of 54 male patients who received treatment between November-2017 and January-2020 in a Regional Mental Health Hospital Child and Adolescent Substance Treatment Inpatient Center were evaluated retrospectively. The sociodemographic and clinical findings were recorded in the sociodemographic data form prepared by the researchers. Mean and standard deviation values of the normally distributed data, and the median, 25%-75% values of the data that were non-normally distributed were given. Categorical data were defined with % and n.
Results
The median age of the patients was 17 (25%=16.4; 75%=17.4) years, and the median age of onset of substance use was 14 (25%=13; 75%=15) years. It was determined that 77.8% of the cases used more than one substance, and the most frequently used substances were cannabis (77.8%), ecstasy (50%), volatile substance (31.5%), respectively. It was found that 80% of cases had at least one comorbid psychiatric disorder. In addition, it was determined that 48.1% (n=26) of the cases had a delinquency-history and 16.7% (n=9) had a prison-history.
Conclusion
Adolescents are more prone to substance abuse due to the developmental characteristics of the period which they are in and they are more likely to suffer from the negative effects of substances. Therefore, we think that the data obtained from our study will be useful in determining substance abuse prevention and treatment protocols.
