Tertiary care de-addiction centre patients with substance dependence syndrome: A study of sociodemographic profile, sero prevalence of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, human immuno deficiency virus, and psychiatric co-morbidity

Objective: In India, the epidemic of substance misuse among young people has grown alarmingly severe over the past few years. These patients continue to spread the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) at an alarming pace on a global scale. Co-morbidity between psychiatric diseases and substance use disorders has recently gained significant policy attention. The current study sought to determine the prevalence of psychiatric co-morbidity, HIV, HBV, and HCV infection among individuals with substance use disorders.
Material and methods: The present cross-sectional study was tertiary care Drug De-addiction Centre based study in which their sero-prevalence of anti-HCV, anti-HIV antibodies and HBsAg antigen were determined along with psychiatric co-morbidity among 100 consenting patients of substance dependence syndrome. Pre structured psychiatric thesis, socio demographic performa, self reporting questionare 20 and MINI were applied to study the abovesaid factors. The data was evaluated using Microsoft Office Excel worksheet.
Results: The majority 60.0% of patients had single substance dependence. Out of that maximum had opioid dependence 86.7% followed by alcohol dependence 8.3%. 30 (30.0%) patients were reactive for any of three viral markers and 70 (70%) patients were non-reactive. Regarding psychiatric co-morbidity 29.0% patients of substance dependence syndrome had co-morbid psychiatric illness as per MINI scale.
Conclusions: Thus, the findings of this study will contribute to the development of effective intervention programs to stop the spread of  HIV, HBV, HCV, and psychiatric disorder among this population.