Assessment of psychological distress among person's with substance abuse problem in plateau state

university, bokkos

Introduction

Several studies note the epidemiloly of comorbid drug use and psychological distress (kessler, nelson,
mcgonagle, edlund, frank & leaf, 1996; grant, 1995). The burden of substance misusebin developing
countries is large and increasing, with negative consequences for physical and psychological health.
Drugs however, as defined by the international convention of 1961 for narcotic drugs and of 1971 for
psychotropic substances, include all substance and chemical that should not be used for any scientific
research. If used for purposes aratherwise, they are called illicit drugs (massage, sherief, fissehaye &
teklu, 1999). Drug abuse is therefore defined as a maladaptive pattern of substance use leading to
clinically significant, impairment or distress is manifested by one or more of the following occuring
within a 12 month period: recurrent substance use resulting in the failure to fulfil major roles like
obligations at work, school or in the home; recurrent substance use in it is physically hazardous (world
health organization 1993). The nigerian national drug law enforcement agency (NDLEA) has stated that
drug abuse is a major problem especially in schools; about 20% of the school population bin lagos state,
Nigeria had taken a psychoactive drug once in their lives (Alemika 1998)

Psychological distress is largely defined as a state of emotional suffering characterized by symptoms

of depression (e.g lost of intreast; sadness; hopelessness) and anxiety (e.g restlessness; feeling tense)
( Mirowsky & Ross 2002). It's also viewed as an emotional disturbance that may impact on the social
functioning and day-to-day living of individuals ( Wheaton 2007). These symptoms may be tied in with
somatic symptoms (e.g insomnia, headaches, lack of energy) that are likely to vary across cultures.
Unfortunately, the course if psychological distress is largely unknown. The self medication hypothesis
postulates that some individuals are predisposed to addiction because they sufrer from negative
affective states and psychological distress.

Majority of person's with substance abuse problems are also diagnosed with other mental health
challenges, therefore, the problem identified for this study is to assess the prevalence of psychological
distress and substance abuse among substance suers. In Nigeria, Ifabumyi (1986) reported a shift in the
pattern. Atoyebi and Atoyebi (2013) reported analgesic, cannabis, tobacco, alcohol, and sedatives as the
commonly abused substance. Parlong and karuri, (2015) in a case study reported that, alcohol,
cigarettes, tramadol, diazepam, skunk, pentazocine, goskolo, arrange, heroine and ecstasy were the
substance of abuse among their study participants. Therefore this study aims at providing a critical
assessment if the prevalence if psychological distress and substance abuse users with emphasis on
clinically diagnosed substance users be admitted in a treatment facility and those not admitted

Hypothesis

1. There will be likely significant difference bin the level of psychological distress among clinically and
non clinically diagnosed individuals.

2. Young adults will likely have significant level of psychological distress than adults in the general
sample.

Method

Design analysis

Descriptive survey was employed in the study to assess the prevalence of psychological distress among
person's with substance abuse problem. Descriptive statistics and t-test were utilied in analyzing all data
using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21 at p=0.05 significance level.

Participants

The total of 144 participants participated in this study (99, 72.9% n on - clinical samples and 45, 27.1%
clinical samples) out of which 139 were makes and only 5 were females. 79ofbthe participants were →
25 years old while 65 were ← 26 years old, mainimum age was 14 while the maximum age was 62 with
mean she 28, 80 and Std. 8.936. Majority of the participants 110 were students, followed by those
employed with 28, 5 were unemployed with only 1 who dropped out of school.

Measure

Derogatis, lipman and Covi (1977) symptom distress checklist - 90 (SCL- 90), re-standardiized for
Nigeria use by omoluabi (1996) was used to assess 10 primary categories of symptoms associated with
distress among person's with substance abuse problem. Derogatis et al (1977) reported alpha
coefficient which ranged from .77 for psychoticism to .90 for depression. Week interval test- retest
reliability coefficient vranged from .78 for hostility to .90 for phonic anxiety. The Nigerian norms are
provided for university students, 18-26 years old (Onighaiye, 1996) and adults 26-87 years old ( Erinoso,
1996).

Procedure
 Accidental sampling technique was utilized in generating data among persons abusing substances
across some streets of jos north local government area of plateau state Nigeria, while information on
clinical sample was generated from "Chances for you Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre Abuja",
using retrospective study method. Only client folders that were admitted in abuse and were
administered SCL- 90 met the inclusion criteria for this study.

Result

Descriptive statistics

Table 1:

Summary table showing mean age, standard deviation and age range of participants

Frequency. Percentage%
Mean +- SD Age. 28.80+-8.94

Age range

≤25years 79. 48.6

≥26years. 87. 52.4

Table 1 reveals vthat the mean age of participants was 28.80 years (SD= 8.94), with majority 87 (52.4%)
26 years and above and 79 (47.6%) 25 years and below.

Table 2:

Overall ranking if dubscales of SCL-90from the least to the highest for clinical and non clinical sample (N-
144)

Mean. SD. Rank

Phonic anxiety. 5.55. 5.17. 1

Hostility. 6.67. 5.54. 2

Paranoid ideation. 8.33. 5.28. 3

Psychoticism. 8.77. 6.43. 4

Neuroticism. 9.04. 6.02. 5

Anxiety. 9.69. 7.54. 6

Interpersonal sensitivity. 10.95. 6.62. 7

Depression. 13.60. 8.54. 8

Result of table 2 reveals that phonic anxiety had the least mean score ( prevalence, ranked 1) while
depression had the highest mean score (prevalence ranked 10) for both clinical and Non-clinical sample.

Discussion

Result of the first hypothesis revealed that there was no significant difference in the level of
psychological distress among clinically d non clinically diagnosed individuals. The second hypothesis
revealed that younger age group did not have significant level of psychosocial distress than adults in the
general sample. The result obtained for hypothesis one has indicated not significant dispite the marginal
difference in mean scores. Despite the fact that two different groups were used, there is likely to have
slight difference in their characteristics.

However, earlier literature reported that, psychological distress generally exist mong person's with
substance abuse problem irrespective of age, gender, and or being a clinically diagnosed client or not. In
this present study, the over l prevalence of psychological distress for clinically and non clinically samples
showed that depression has the highest prevalence ranked, followed by obsessive compulsive,
somatization, anxiety, neuroticism, psychoticism, paranoid ideation, hostility and phonic sam ple
depression has the highest rank psychological distress, followed by somatization, obsessive- compulsive,
anxiety, hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, neuroticism, psychoticism, paranoid ideation, phobic, anxiety
had the least rank. Generally, in relation to substance abuse in this study, 11 different substance were
abused by participants that participated in the study with cigrattr s most abused substance followed by
marijuana, codeine, alcohol, rohoypnol, cocaine, diazepam, tramadol. Saleh, et al (2015) and saleh
(2016) reported that, top in the list of substance of abuse among their study participants were alcohol,
cigarettes and marijuana.

References

Alemike, E. E. O. (1998)). Narcotic drugs control policy in Nigeria.

Anthony, J. C. & Helzer. J (1991). Syndromes f drug abuse and dependenc.

Atoyebi, O. A. & Atoyebi. O. E., (2013). Pattern of substance abuse among senior secondary school
students.