Socio-demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Cannabis Dependence (CD)

Page: 497-500
Mohammad Akmal Shah and K. S. Sengar (Department of Clinical Psychology, Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry and Allied Sciences, (RINPAS), Ranchi, Jharkhand)

Widely known as a gateway of drugs, cannabis has now become a major public health problem that if left untreated can possibly have shocking consequences in an adolescents’ life. A structured socio-demographic sheet was constructed to extract information from cannabis abusers including some clinical data. A total of 30 patients with diagnosis of cannabis dependence were contacted in the deaddiction ward of Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry and Allied Sciences (RINPAS), Ranchi, Jharkhand. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. The mean age of the participants was 26.53±5.02. In total, 67% of participants were married and 43% were from rural background. Participants were approximately equally divided in nuclear and joint families. Thirty-six (36%) percent were educated up to graduation and almost 27% were educated up to intermediate level. Thirty-three (33%) percent participants’ families had a member of family with cannabis dependence. Twelve participants had family history of psychiatric illness which makes about 40% of sample with more than 50% having other substance use in family. The mean years of age of first use was 18.97±4.95 with 7.67±3.78 mean years of duration of abuse. Finally, it was concluded that the age of initiation of cannabis, family use of substance abuse including cannabis, education, occupation and income as important factors associated with cannabis dependence.