Assessment the Causes of Substance Abuse –Related Relapse among Patients with Addiction in Baghdad City

Abstract

Background: One of the most problems that face the health workers in addiction units is the relapse of addict patient after a period of treatment. No studies are conducted about the addiction relapse in Iraq. Aims of study: The current study aims to assess the causative factors affecting the substance abuse-related relapse. And find out the relationship between the demographic characteristics and the cause of relapse. Methodology: A descriptive study was conducted from November 15th 2015 to April 15th 2016 on addict patient in Baghdad City. Purposive (non-probability) samples of 65 relapsed addicts who are inpatient in Ibn-Rushd Psychiatric Teaching Hospital and the Psychiatric unit of Baghdad Teaching Hospital who had undergone treatment for substance dependency and they had at least one episode of relapse during the period of addiction. The study uses the self-administrated questionnaire. The data has been analyzed by using the descriptive statistics (Frequencies, Percentages, Means and Standard Deviations (SD)) and the inferential statistics (Chi-square to find out the relationships between the causes of the relapse and the socio-demographic characteristics of addicts).Results: the findings of the current study revealed that all relapsed patients are males with age ranged from 18 years to more than 50 years. The age of onset of substance abuse ranged from 9 years to more than 29 years. Most of addict patients were relapsed during the first six months after treatment. The highest percentage of the addict patients was addicted to alcohol. The results indicated that the main causes of relapse were the feeling of urgent desire for abuse, the availability of the substance and lack of knowledge about the risk to return to addiction and the tension of family relations. There is no significant relationship between the age and occupation of addict patients and the cause of relapse. There is a significant relationship between monthly income and cause of relapse.Conclusions: the study concluded that the feeling of urgent desire for abuse, the availability of the substance, lack of knowledge about the risk to return to addiction and the tension of family relations are the main cause of relapse. There is a significant relationship between monthly income and cause of relapse. There is no significant relationship between the age and occupation of addict patients and the cause of relapse.Recommendations: the study recommended that the treatment programs should be focusing on teaching the clients how to cope with the relapse and control the feeling of craving for substance abuse. Keywords: substance abuse, relapse, addiction, addict patient.