Substance Use Among High School Students of Central India : Prevalence and Pattern

The World Health Organization defines "Addiction" as the state of physiological or psychological addiction to any psychoactive substance. Substance use has become a global public health problem and situation in India is not different from rest of the world. The epidemic of substance abuse in adolescents has assumed alarming extent in India. However there is no published report on prevalence and pattern of substance use among adolescents from Madhya Pradesh state, India. Information about prevalence and pattern of substance use is essential for planning of intervention programs. Also, when repeated from time to time they provide trends of substance use in a population. Hence, this student substance use survey was conducted with an aim to assess prevalence and pattern of substance use among high school students of Bhopal city, Madhya Pradesh, India. Modified WHO-recommended methodology for student drug use surveys was exercised in the present research. Information about substance use was collected with a self-administered questionnaire.