Recent illicit drug use among psychiatric patients in Brazil: a national representative study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To estimate factors associated to illicit drug use among patients with mental illness in Brazil according to gender.METHODS A cross-sectional representative sample of psychiatric patients (2,475 individuals) was randomly selected from 11 hospitals and 15 public mental health outpatient clinics. Data on self-reported illicit drug use and sociodemographic, clinical and behavioral characteristics were obtained from face-to-face interviews. Logistic regression was used to estimate associations with recent illicit drug use.RESULTS The prevalence of any recent illicit drug use was 11.4%. Men had higher prevalence than women for all substances (17.5% and 5.6%, respectively). Lower education, history of physical violence, and history of homelessness were associated with drug use among men only; not professing a religion was associated with drug use in women only. For both men and women, younger age, current hospitalization, alcohol and tobacco use, history of incarceration, younger age at sexual debut, and more than one sexual partner were statistically associated with illicit drug use.CONCLUSIONS Recent illicit drug use among psychiatric patients is higher than among the general Brazilian population and it is associated with multiple factors including markers of psychiatric severity. Our data indicate the need for the development of gender-based drug-use interventions among psychiatric patients in Brazil. Integration of substance use treatment strategies with mental health treatment should be a priority.

All-cause and cause-specific mortality among people with severe mental illness in Brazil's public health system, 2000–15: a retrospective study

“…In Brazil, a study found higher rates of both past-year (11•4%) and lifetime (25•4%) illicit drug use among patients with mental ill health. 41 The EMR was excessively high in young people in our study supporting previous findings. 25 The persistent gap in life expectancy for those with severe mental illness should be viewed as an example of discrimination, and points to a need for increased equity among those living with mental illness compared with the general population.…”

“…42 People with severe mental illness are exposed to worse cultural, sociological, and economic factors, such as less healthy lifestyles, poorer socioeconomic circumstances, and the social consequences of mental illness. 25,28,41,43 Additionally mortality in people with mental disorders is likely to be related to various causes, including behavioural factors and patterns in modifiable risk factors, access to and quality of health-care systems, and social determinants of health, such as poverty and lack of social support. 6,7 This study has some limitations.…”

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

“…In Arab countries, several studies show the prevalence of SU is rising, including Saudi Arabia ( Alblooshi et al, 2016 ; Ibrahim et al, 2018 ; Al-Alawi and Shaikh, 2018 ). Apparently, recent evidence shows the association of SU among persons with mental illness ( Nahas et al, 2017 ; Nielsen et al, 2017 ). Studies show that the prevalence of SU in persons with mental illness has higher rates compared with the general population and in particularly of amphetamines, alcohol and cannabis ( Nielsen et al, 2017 ).…”

Spatial analysis of cases of Tuberculosis with Mental Disorders in São Paulo

“…The literature shows that the population with MD presents a greater risk to the development of communicable diseases and related to the poverty, like Tuberculosis (TB) than other health conditions (3) . The various MD due to psychoactive substance abuse, such as Illicit Drugs, Alcoholism and Smoking have been being associated with TB illness (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9) . Different explanations are found in the literature for such a cellular association of immunohistochemical reactions, gender differences, behavioral characteristics, lifestyle and work, and unhealthy environments (10) .…”