Hallucination experience in drug users: a qualitative study

Objective (s): The effect of crystal meth abuse is hallucination. This study aimed to explore the experiences of hallucination in drug users in Ahwaz، Iran. This was a qualitative investigation. The data collected by semi-structred in-depth interviews. Data collection was carried out until the data saturation Content analysis was used to explore the data.. In all 38 drug users were interviewed.. Of these 35 participants used both crack and crystal meth، one participant was addicted to crack، crystal meth and marijuana and 2 participants were crystal meth addicted only. About 65% of drug users were single، 10% were married and the rest were separated and 85% had a prison record. Six major categories emerged from analysis including visual hallucination، audile hallucination، cognitive hallucination، increase empathy، phobic and murder guilt hallucination، and concentration on something. Due to negative effects of hallucination on physical and mental health of participants and their family and that crystal is produced in extensive quantities by illegal labs and is introduced to the market، it seems necessary to giving widespread education especially through mass media to all social groups especially the youth and teenagers.