Association of Demographic Profile, Depression and Anxiety with Drug Abuse among Medical Students

Background: Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is a patterned use of a drug in which the user consumes the substance in amounts or with methods which are harmful to themselves or others, and is a form of substance related disorder. Drug abuse is a frequent public health issue globally. The pattern of substance abuse seen in young adults is generally followed by the medical students as well and warrants that strict surveillance is undertaken in order to prevent it further. Objective: To determine the association of demographic profile, depression and anxiety with drug abuse in medical students of the different private and government Medical Universities of Lahore. Methods: A total of 1500 students from different public and private institutes were enrolled after taking informed consent. Students from the institutions who were between the ages of 18 and 30 and enrolled in MBBS programs were included, regardless of gender. Non-probability consecutive sampling technique was used. DAST-20 scale was used for determining substance use disorder and the degree of involvement in drugs. A score of ≥6 out of 20 on DAST-20 was labeled to have substance use disorder. HADS was applied to assess depression and anxiety. All findings were noted down on a predesigned performa and was subjected to statistical analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Results: The results showed that the mean age (in years), DAST-20 score, depression score and anxiety score of the patients was 24.29±3.54, 5.67±4.76, 4.78±2.5 and 4.71±2.44 respectively. Drug abuse was present in 11.6% of medical students out of which 5.6% had intermediate involvement, 3.6% had substantial involvement and 2.4% had severe involvement. Depression was present in 12.8% and anxiety was present in 6.8% patients and there was a significant association between these symptoms and drug abuse (p=0.000). Conclusion: Medical students have been frequently found to be involved in drug related activity and depression and anxiety have been identified as a main predisposing factor leading to abuse.