Abstract
Objective The National Rehabilitation Center (NRC) is the major center in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) treating patients with substance use disorders (SUD). The objective of our study is to analyze data from the NRC to examine the trends of SUD in the UAE nationals over the last 10 years and to assess the status of the treatment programme at the NRC. Methods Data was collected during a 10 year period from patients’ records admitted to the NRC (from its inception in 2002 to 2011) to study socio-demographic characteristics, patterns of SUD as well as co-morbid conditions. Results A total of 591 patients were assessed and/or admitted to the NRC during this period. All patients were males between the age group 16 - 66 years, forty two percent were married, 60% were unemployed and 51% were educated below secondary school level. Seventy seven percent of the patients were admitted voluntarily and 23% were involuntarily admitted. Forty one percent was admitted due to alcohol consumption, 20% for prescription drugs and 16% for heroin. Discussion Relapse rate and retention in treatment were used as indicators of the effectiveness of the treatment programmes at the NRC. The number of admissions per patient each year was used as an estimate of relapse which showed a drop from about 60% in the first two years when the NRC opened to about 20% recently. Rates of retention/completion of inpatient treatment and discharge to outpatient care, half-way house or home were about 73% with 27% of patients terminating their treatment earlier. Overall, there has been a steady increase in SUD over the last 10 years with increasing trends of prescription drugs and polysubstance addiction among youth. This necessitates expansion of services to meet the increasing demands as well as increasing efforts towards nationwide effective prevention and public awareness approaches. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/ijptsud.v1i1.5912 International Journal of Prevention and Treatment of Substance Use Disorder Vol.1(1) 2013: 62-75
Highlights
The prevalence of substance use disorders (SUD) assessed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Drug Report 1 claims that it is steadily increasing globally and it continues to be a problem impacting public health
Relapse rate and retention in treatment were used as indicators of the effectiveness of the treatment programmes at the National Rehabilitation Center (NRC)
The number of admissions per patient each year was used as an estimate of relapse which showed a drop from about 60% in the first two years when the NRC opened to about 20% recently
Summary
The National Rehabilitation Center (NRC) is the major center in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) treating patients with substance use disorders (SUD). The objective of our study is to analyze data from the NRC to examine the trends of SUD in the UAE nationals over the last 10 years and to assess the status of the treatment programme at the NRC
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