Substance use among treatment seeking Indian adolescent girls: Are they unique?

Substance use among adolescents is on the rise across the globe along with a diminution of gender gap observed earlier posing a huge public health burden. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of literature on adolescent substance use. The literature is even sparse about substance use among adolescent girls. The current study aims to provide a glimpse of the profile and pattern of substance use among Indian adolescent girls seeking treatment for substance use problems in a specialty addiction treatment centre in India.

This study is retrospective in design. Information regarding socio-demographics and substance use were extracted from the medical records of adolescent girls (≤ 19 years) who sought treatment for substance use problems during 2004-2018, at the adolescent clinic of a tertiary addiction treatment centre located in north India was retrieved carried out. The data was statistically analysed using SPSS.

A total of 28 girls sought treatment during this period. The mean age of the girls was 15.89 ± 2.72 years. Most of the girls were students (6/28) or had never started working (12/28). Majority of them were coming from an urban background (89.3%) and were educated up to 10^th class (85.5%). A total of 17 (60.7%) girls sought treatment for opioids use of which 11 were using illicit opioids like heroin and five (29.9%) of them reported taking opioids by injecting route primarily. History of past abstinence attempts, and treatment attempt were present in very few of them (10.7% and 14.3%).

Our study suggests a distinct substance use profile of adolescent girls. There is a need for further systematic studies to assess their clinical needs.