Comorbid Substance Used Disorders and Associated Factors Among People with Mental Illness: a Facility Based Cross Sectional Study from Northeast Ethiopia: a Preliminary Study for a Harm Reduction Strategies

Abstract

Introduction
Many international prevalence studies have shown that psychiatric patients have significantly higher rates of comorbid substance used disorder than the general population. Services and programs should acknowledge the strong link that exists on comorbid substance used and other mental illnesses. However, the prevalence and associated factors of comorbid substance used disorders were unknown among psychiatric patients at Dessie referral hospital.
Objective
To determine the prevalence of comorbid substance used disorders and associated factors of psychiatric patients.
Method
An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from 01/11- 28/12/2017 at Dessie referral hospital by using systematic random sampling technique. Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) was used to assess comorbid substance used disorders. The data were analyzed by using SPSS version 23.
Results
The overall lifetime prevalence of any comorbid substance used was 63.7%. The all types of substance used disorders were 38.1%. The most common types of comorbid substance used disorders were Khat (30.7%), tobacco (17.0%) and alcohol (12.2%) respectively. Being male (AOR=9.27, 95% CI: 4.47-19.22), age of the patient (AOR=4.05, 95% CI: 1.43-11.49), history of hospital admission (AOR=3.06, 95% CI: 1.19-7.83), family history of alcohol (AOR=2.30, 95% CI: 1.02-5.18) and other substance used (AOR=2.27, 95% CI: 1.08-4.76) were independently associated factors for comorbid substance used disorders. But being student by occupation (AOR=0.22, 95% CI: 0.05-0.89) was a protective factor of comorbid substance use disorder.
Conclusions
The high prevalence of comorbid substance used disorders detected in our facility-based study implies the need to design effective screening tools and feasible intervention strategies for comorbid substance used disorder.