The Relationship between Substance Abuse, Nicotine Use and Positive and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenic Patients at Mathari Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya

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Date
2007Author
Othieno, Caleb J
Gakinya, Benson N
Omar, Ali
Ndetei David M.
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Substance abuse in 224 Kenyan schizophrenic patients was assessed using the
Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, the Scale for the Assessment of
Positive Symptoms, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test and the Fagerström
Test for Nicotine Dependence in a cross-sectional study. The most commonly abused
substances were tobacco, alcohol and cannabis. Higher rates of substance abuse
were reported in males than in females. Abuse of other substances showed similar
trends but at a lower level. The lifetime prevalence rates for tobacco use and
dependence were 37.1% and 28.6%, respectively. No correlation was found between
SAPS and SANS scores and substance abuse. Since psychoactive substances cause
confusion and complicate recovery, adequate measures should be put in place to
identify and manage the problems associated with substance abuse
URI
http://www.crisanet.org/abstracts_6_1.htm?page=Othienhttp://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/12379
Citation
African Journal of Drug and Alcohol Studies, 6(1), 2007Publisher
Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse School of medicine
Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10214]