International Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences

Full Length Research Paper

Quality of life and its correlates among substance dependent subjects: A study from a tertiary care centre in northeastern part of India

*Om Prakash Giri¹, Mona Srivastava², Ravi Shankar³,

¹Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Community Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (UP) India  221005.

²Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Medical Sciences ,Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (UP) India  221005.

³Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (UP) India  221005.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: d[email protected] Tel. 9336910619

Accepted 09 July, 2013

Abstract

Substance Abuse is a worldwide problem that causes various sequelae, which severely affect physical and mental health, social and daily life. Quality of Life (QOL) is increasingly recognized as an important outcome measure in treatment studies and for service evaluation. This study assessed the QOL in Alcohol Dependent (AD) and Opioids dependent (OD) and compared the same with a control group (NC). It was further aimed to study the relationship between QOL and specified socio-demographic characteristic features across the three groups. A cross-sectional assessment of the three groups of subjects was made. AD and OD subjects not in active withdrawal or intoxication phase were included in the study, the third group included the normal controls. QOL assessment was made with the World Health Organization-QOL-Bref Hindi version. The comparison of the various domains in QOL was done by applying ANOVA test. All the domains of well-being on the basis of WHOQOL scale revealed a significant difference when compared to the normal controls. In order to assess the effect of socio-economic variables on the quality of life we applied the multiple linear regression analysis.  The results did not show any difference across the three groups. The study indicates that opioid dependent and alcohol dependent subjects experience a lower QOL when compared with the normal group, however when the opioid group was compared to the alcohol dependent group there was a lower QOL in the OD group. Social Support scores also had no significant effect on any domains of QOL in both the OD and AD groups.

Key word: Drug dependence, quality of life (QOL), World Health Organization, quality of life (WHOQOL-Brief), social support.