Enobakhare Uwadiae
,
Israel O Aina,
For correspondence:- Enobakhare Uwadiae Email: enobakhare.uwadiae@uniben.edu Tel: +234-8023367839
Published: 11 December 2019
Citation: Uwadiae E, Aina IO, Substance Use and Psychological Distress. The Experience of Tricycle Riders in Egor Local Government Area in Benin City. J Sci Pract Pharm 2019; 6(1):294-297 doi: 10.47227/jsppharm.v6i1.2
© 2019 The author(s).
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only. .
Purpose: Drivers of tricycles work for long hours and this can have an effect on the psychological status of the drivers. They may also be exposed to substance use. This study examined substance use and psychological distress among tricycle drivers in Egor Local Government Area (LGA) in Benin City, Nigeria. Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive survey that assessed the health status of the respondents using the General Health Questionnaire. The respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics and pattern of substance use was also assessed. Results: Majority, 58 (70.7%) were married and consumed alcohol 50 (61%). About 25 (30.5%) drank alcohol daily and beer was the commonest form of alcohol consumed 29 (35.4%). A few, 11 (13.4%) drink multiple substances. Though the majority of the respondents, 58 (70.7%), used different forms of psychoactive substances, those who consume alcohol were significantly more (X2=8.741, df=1, p=0.003). Some form of psychological distress was present in 52 (63.4%) of the drivers. There was no statistically significant relationship between substance use and psychological distress in the respondents (X2=0.714 df=1 p=0.398). Conclusion: Majority of the respondents consume alcohol daily and have some level of psychological distress which could not be attributed to the use of psychoactive substances alone.
