Factors Affecting Relapsing Drug Addicted Patients in Pathumthani Province

Abstract

Presently, one half of drug addicts use drugs repeatedly. They remain chronic addicts presenting psychoses disorders when they don’t stop using drugs. The purpose of this research was to study which factors affected relapsing drug in addicted patients residing in Pathumthani Province and treated in Thanyarak Institute. In all, 62 drug addicts were selected by purposive sampling in 7 wards from 28 September 2014 to 16 January 2015. The questionnaire’s reliability was 0.985, Descriptive analyses used percentage, mean, SD. Chi-squared to compare qualitative variables among factors. In this study, participants comprised mostly males (54.8%) and females (45.2%). The largest age groups were 15-25 years and 26-35 years (33.87%). The most prevalent career was employee (53.20%). Most participants underwent their second admission (75.80%) while the highest number of admission times was 10. The most common drug used at the first time (66.20%) and the last time before admission (61.30%) was amphetamine. The youngest drug addict was 10 years old and the highest reported cost was 500 THB daily. Results: The main factors associated with drug relapse (P<0.05) comprised family factors such as parenting in childhood, family relationship and internal factors such as drug addiction, self-awareness regarding not wanting to stop substance abuse, satisfaction with reaction to drugs, loneliness, unstable job, new friend who didn’t accept them and lack of income. External factors comprised friends and environment conditions, e.g., conflicts among family members, living in drug addiction and drug-selling area, persuaded by friends who became addicted together. Not being accepted by family and community members was associated with drug relapse (P<0.05). The top three reasons for no drug relapse in the subjects’ opinions were staying with their family (22.41%), being denied access to opportunities for drug use (15.52%) and not taking the advice of friends and showing confidence in themselves (10.34%). The top three treatments involved 6 months or 2 years for treatment, and maintaining a strong mind (6.9%). As a result of this research, it was suggested that mindfulness meditation training should be provided to inhibit cravings and receive external factor impact, a major cause of drug relapse among drug addicts