A study to determine the sources, effects and causes for substance use disorders and to develop an informational booklet on prevention and management of substance use disorders in selected drug De-Addiction and rehabilitation centers of Nepal

The main objectives of the study were to determine sources, causes and effects of substance use disorders, to develop and disseminate an informational booklet on prevention and management of substance use disorders for the patients and to seek relationship between effects of substance use disorders and selected demographic variables, such as, age, marital status, family income, occupation, educational qualification.

A conceptual model of substance abuse by Clark HW was used as the conceptual framework. A descriptive survey approach with cross-sectional design was used to achieve the objectives of the study. A semi structured questionnaire, to assess the sources, causes and effects of substance use disorder was developed. The tool was validated by the experts from the field of Psychiatric Nursing, Psychology and Psychiatry. The reliability of the tool was established by using Cronbach's Alpha and the reliability coefficient was 0.87. The study was conducted at The Richmond Fellowship, Chobar, Kathmandu, Nepal. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select 60 patients attending drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centres.

data gathered was analyzed and interpreted using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study showed that most of the study subjects were in the age group of 15–25 years and unmarried, most of the study subjects consumed alcohol as addictive substance, most of the patients procured substances from friends and used to consume at their home. Most of the study subjects consumed substances for pleasure and also as they felt lonely. As per the severity, 75% of the study subjects had more harmful effects of the substance use disorders. Among the causes of substance use disorders, psychological causes ranked the highest. There was no significant relationship between the effect of substance use disorders and the selected variables.