Attitude and Behavior of Users to Quit Using Opium With the Spiritual Therapy of Karen in Omkoi District, Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

A descriptive research aimed to evaluate attitude, behavior and reasons of opium withdrawal by spiritual therapy. 118 participants were allocated to a focus group technique and questionnaires for data collection. Quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and content analysis for qualitative data.

The results indicated that most of the samples were females (82.2%) with the average age of 51.6 years olds (S.D. = 10.8), uneducated (79.9%) and very good family relationship (90.7%). Focused on drug used, participants had used opium more than 1-2 times a week (70.3 %) and ever used both opium and amphetamine (10.2%). Using opium contestants had not found any aggressive symptoms (98.3 %). The attitude towards to spiritual such as ritual faith, fear of death whenever participants break the oath (71.2%). Turn to spiritual therapy, around three-fourth of contestants (78.8 %). had chosen this therapy. 83.9% were cold turkey with reasons as followed family in trouble, waste of money and economy (66.1%) and listening from family members (63.6%).