Volume : 2, Issue : 5, May - 2013

An Exploratory Study on Frequency and Pattern of Nicotine Use in Male Schizophrenic Patients in a North Indian Outpatient Setting

Amit Khanna, Dhanesh K Gupta, Sujit Kumar Kar

Abstract :

Objective: To study the frequency and pattern of tobacco use in male patients of schizophrenia in the OPD of a psychiatric hospital in Delhi, India. Method: Sample was collected from the psychiatry out–patients over a period of nine months. Patients were assessed as per the structured Performa and assessment tools like Schedule for clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry (SCAN), Positive And Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Global Assessment Scale (GAS). Criteria of International Classification of Diseases (ICD) – 10th edition was used for making diagnosis. The data was analyzed by statistics software SPSS 20.0 version. Results: Of the 70 patients constituting the study sample. More than 60% patients had consumed some substance (including tobacco) at some time in their life. Almost half of the patients had history of tobacco use with 40% percent (n=28) were diagnosed with tobacco dependence and 27% (n=19) had a history of other substance use which included alcohol, cannabis, opioid and benzodiazepines. Conclusion: The overall substance use in our patients was found to be lower than what has been reported by earlier studies done in India and in the West. Tobacco (47.1%) was the commonest substance of abuse. Most schizophrenic patients who consumed tobacco had a dependence pattern of abuse