A retrospective analysis of substance use among female psychiatric patients in Saudi Arabia.

Objective: This study investigated the prevalence of substance use (SU), and its risk factors, among women attending psychiatric outpatients center in Saudi Arabia.

Design: A retrospective cross-sectional design.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed outpatients' records of 200 female patients with a history of SU from a psychiatric unit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from December 2018 to February 2019. The researchers developed the , and 2 psychiatrists and a family medicine physician validated the form.

Results: The most common and widely used were psychoactive substances (58%), followed by central nervous system (CNS) depressants (22%), and finally cannabinols (9.5%). Overall, the highest substance use was the amphetamine-cannabis-nicotine (ACN) representing nearly half of the illicit items (46.6%), followed by heroine-alcohol-benzodiazepine (16.4%), and with the lowest being benzodiazepine-nicotine (1.7%). There was a significant difference between the single substance and multiple substance use in terms of age ( = 0.001), smoking behavior ( = 0.001), patients past history ( = 0.005), and age of the patient at the start of drug use ( = 0.005).

Conclusion: Although the prevalence of substance use among women is low in Saudi Arabia, screening of substance use disorders risks and building a rehabilitation program to control drug dependence are needed.