A study of psychiatric comorbidities among treatment seeking opioid injectors attending tertiary care teaching hospital, Imphal for a period of 2 years

Abstract

Introduction: Psychiatric comorbidity among opioid injectors is the co-occurrence of other mental disorders among them besides being dependent on injecting opioid. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to find out the prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities among opioid injectors and to find out the association between drug use Profile with psychiatric comorbidities. Materials and Methods: All the consecutive opioid injectors who attended Drug De-addiction Centre, tertiary care teaching hospital, Imphal, from October 2013 till September 2015 were interviewed with General Health Questionnaire-12 to assess the mental health status, they were interviewed with Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview plus for the diagnosis of mental conditions. The data were analyzed statistically using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS21) software. Results: One hundred and five opioid injectors were enrolled in this study. The common psychiatric comorbidities were anti-social personality disorder 85.7% (n = 90) followed by depression 61.9% (n = 65), poly substance dependence 52.4% (n = 55), anxiety disorder 41% (n = 43), psychosis 23.8% (n = 25), suicide 11.4% (n = 12), panic disorder 4.8% (n = 5), and specific phobia 4.8% (n = 5). Conclusion: This study shows that the majority of dependent opioid injectors are vulnerable to many psychiatric comorbidities which should be screened and treated side by side while treating the dependency.