Abstract:
Illicit drug use causes a number of adverse consequences and affects the health and well being of drug addicts in many ways. This study was conducted to assess the common adverse consequences among male illicit rug users admitted to rehabilitation centers in Sri Lanka. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 431 male drug users who were newly admitted or re-admitted in five selected rehabilitation centers in Sri Lanka. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic and other information. Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST) was used to assess consequences related to illicit drug use during the 12 months prior to admission. Judgmental validity of DAST was confirmed by expert opinion. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Ethical approval was obtained from Ethical Review Commitee, Faculty of Medicne, Galle. Majority of the sample were Sinhalese (82.4%) and Buddhists (70.5%) with a mean age (SD) of 32 (10.3) years and 39.7% were readmissions. A high percentage of drug users (67.3%) were poly drug users. A majority had encountered adverse legal (86.3%), family (83.5%) and social (78.4%) consequences, followed by employment (58.0%) and medical (52.2%) consequences. Medical consequences were associated with longer duration of illicit drug use (p<0.001), history of previous admissions (p<0.001), older age (p<0.05) and urban residence (p<0.05). Adverse employment consequences were associated with younger age (p<0.05), longer duration of illicit drug use (p<0.05), poly drug use (p<0.05) and history of previous admissions (p<0.05). Adverse legal and social consequences were associated with history of previous admissions (p<0.001 and p< 0.05 respectively) and longer duration of illicit drug use (p<0.05), while adverse family consequences were associated with history of previous admissions (p<0.05). Illicit drug users suffer from a variety of consequences due to their illicit drug use behavior. Those consequences should be taken into account during rehabilitation process in order to achieve better outcomes.
