Demographic Variables Associated With Drug Use in Bipolar Patients

Abstract

Background: Substance Use is highly associated with bipolar affective disorder, however the reason for the co-occurrence is unknown. It was evident that if a bipolar patient use drug of abuse his outcome will be poor. Either it can directly trigger the affective symptoms, or may affect the treatment compliance indirectly.
 Aims: The objective of this study was to study the demographic correlates of drug abuse in patients with bi-polar affective disorder.
 Method: Cross-Sectional research design and non-probability consecutive sampling was used to collect data from a private clinic in Lahore. Data was comprised of 368 patients of bipolar disorder.
 Results: Out of a total of 368 bipolar patients, drug abuse was found in 147 patients that is 39.9%. The results showed that the mean age of the patients was 31.03 ±5.837; mean monthly income was 229597.82 ±164626.77 PKR. The mean duration of illness was 6.54 ±5.157. The mean number of drugs used was 2 ±0.875. The mean cost of drug was 29945.7 ±19068.8 PKR. The mean number of hospitalization was 2.47 ±1.694. Association between drug use and occupation of bipolar patients (0.006), factors leading to initiation of drug use (0.000), family history of drug use (0.001), current episode (0.000) and the type of drugs used (0.000) was statistically significant.
 Conclusion: The cause and effect relationship between drug use and bipolar disorder cannot be clearly identified. However occupation of the patient, reasons of initiating drugs, drug abuse in family, current episode as well as type of drugs used have significant association with drug abuse in bipolar patients .