Surveying Mental Health Status of IV Drug Abusers in Kashan Prison in 2007

Nowadays, drug addiction and its associated businesses are worldwide concern. The main purpose of the current study is to evaluate mental health status of IV drug abusers in Kashan prison. All IV drug abusers of Kashan prison were included for whom General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) and demographic characteristic questionnaire were completed. Meanwhile, they were interviewed via DSM-IV check list and evaluated by three psychiatrists. The following psychiatric disorders were commonly found among IV drug abusers: anti-social personality disorder in 28 (93.6%), mood disorder in 21 (47.7%), anxiety disorder in 8 (18.8%) and adjustment disorder in 3 (6.8%). A total of 19 subjects (43.1%) had multi disorders and 25 (56.8%) had only one disorder. In our setting, there was no statistically significant association between psychiatric disorder and marital status, job and educational level, however, the emergence of mental disorder among the unemployed male IV drug abusers and those younger than 30 years should be emphasized. Unfortunately, IV drug abusers are not in good mental health status. Since it was the first study of its kind in our country, further studies are strongly recommended.