Substance Use by Egyptian Youth: Current Patterns and Potential Avenues for Prevention

Abstract

These findings will inform the design of quantitative surveys aimed at estimating the prevalence of specific behaviors related to substance use among youth and potential avenues for prevention.

Tobacco smoking in Egypt: a scoping literature review of its epidemiology and control measures

“…Loffredo et al Classified these factors into: 1) intrinsic factors such as health reasons and self-esteem, and 2) extrinsic factors such as religious beliefs, family influences, and prevention messages of control programmes. The influence of these factors needs to be further investigated and exploited to enhance prevention programs (27).…”

Self-medications with potential abuse in the Middle East: a systematic literature review

“…26 Friends are an important source for such misuse, where peer pressure from friends, or having a family member who used them, stood out as the most common reason to start and continue using substances. 10,17,18 Gender differences were observed in abuse of psychotropic medications. Female sex was associated with increased likelihood of benzodiazepine use.…”

“…10 94.1% of pharmacists suspected that some level of abuse/misuse occurred in their pharmacy, which was highest for decongestants, cough/cold preparations. 1 Swaileh et al reported that antitussives, analgesics, antihistamines, and laxatives were identified by pharmacists as misused and abused medications.…”

“…28 Tramadol was the most commonly used pharmaceutical drug among youths in Egypt. 10 Ghandour showed that psychoactive pain relievers ranked the highest, and stimulants the lowest, both medically and non-medically among university students. 18 Long-term misuse of opioids was associated with increased risk for substance abuse.…”

“…Most studies were cross-sectional (CS) in nature except for 1 case series, 2 retrospective case report analyses, 1 prospective study, 1 qualitative study, and 1 case control study. [8][9][10][11]25,27 Most of the studies used self-administered questionnaires or face to face interviews for data collection or mixed data collection techniques.…”