Research Article Open Access Volume 4 • Issue 2 • 1000165 J Ment Disord Treat, an open access journal ISSN: 2471-271X Open Access Review Article Journal of Mental Disorders and Treatment J o u r n a l o f M e n t a l D i s o r d e r s & T r e a t m e n t ISSN: 2471-271X Kamal et al., J Ment Disord Treat 2018, 4:2 DOI: 10.4172/2471-271X.1000165 *Corresponding author: Mohit Kamal, Professor and Head of Psychotherapy, National Institute of Mental Health, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tel: +8801711832955; E-mail: drmohitkamal@yahoo.com Received July 13, 2018; Accepted July 26, 2018; Published August 10, 2018 Citation: Kamal M, Huq N, Mali B, Akter H, Arafat SMY (2018) Epidemiology of Substance Abuse in Bangladesh: A Narrative Review. J Ment Disord Treat 4: 165. doi:10.4172/2471-271X.1000165 Copyright: © 2018 Kamal M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Epidemiology of Substance Abuse in Bangladesh: A Narrative Review Mohit Kamal 1 *, Huq N 2 , Mali B 3 , Akter H 3 and Arafat SMY 4 1 Department Psychotherapy, National Institute of Mental Health, Dhaka, Bangladesh 2 School of Public Health, Independent University, Bangladesh 3 Department of Nursing, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Bangladesh. 4 Department of Psychiatry, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh Abstract Background: Substance abuse is an important public health and social problem in Bangladesh. The menace of substance has been increasing day by day in the country. Objectives: This review was aimed to look into the epidemiology of substance abuse in Bangladesh based on recent literatures. Methods: Search was done in PubMed, PubMed Central, Google Scholar, and Bangla JOL with searching keywords till March 2018. After considering inclusion and exclusion criteria total 15 articles were selected for review. Results: From the pooled data the review revealed majority of the respondents were less than 30 years of age, 94.17% were male, 62.90% were unmarried, 94.17% from urban background, and 19.66% were businessman. Peer pressure was found as the commonest risk factors (54.69%) followed by anger or impulse issues (41.87%) and availability of drugs (41.17%) were considerable risk factors. Heroin was found as a first choice of drug followed by yaba and cannabis. Conclusion: This review revealed early adulthood was more risky years, males are mostly affected by drugs, peer pressure was most significant influencing risk factor and heroin is the mostly expected drug in Bangladesh. Methods For selecting article search was done in electronic data bases (PubMed, PubMed Central, Google Scholar & Bangla JOL) with searching key words till March 2018. Initial screening was done by analyzing the titles, then abstract was reviewed and finally full articles were downloaded and studied. Aſter exclusion of duplication, screening, finally selection was done on basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria and finally 15 articles were selected for review. Searching words Substance abuse in Bangladesh, drugs in Bangladesh, drug abuse in Bangladesh, yaba in Bangladesh, addiction in Bangladesh, cannabis in Bangladesh, substance use disorder in Bangladesh, substance related disorder in Bangladesh, prevalence of substance use/related disorder in Bangladesh, demography of substance users in Bangladesh Inclusion criteria 1. Full downloadable original articles in pdf form 2. Articles regarding substance abuse in Bangladesh 3. English language. Keywords: Substance abuse; Bangladesh; Drug abuse; Epidemiology; Heroin; Yaba; Demography Introduction Substance abuse is recognized as an important public health and social problem in Bangladesh [1,2]. e incidence of drug abuse has been increasing day by day in a developing country like Bangladesh [2]. Drug addiction hampers the mental well-being of an individual as well as it causes lots of physical complications [2]. In terms of geographical location Bangladesh is situated in the central point of the world's biggest growing narcotics zone: the 'golden crescent' (Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran) and the 'golden triangle' (Myanmar, Laos, and ailand). So, the country has become a major transit point for drug dealers [3]. ey are routing their shipments through this country to the markets of other parts of the world including Europe, Africa and America. Besides this, India, which is an important producer of opium and other substances located around Bangladesh. ough there was no available exact estimation of substance abusers in Bangladesh, on the basis of different and statistics, it can be estimated that the number may be more than 6 million and these people spend over 70 million BDT every day on illegal narcotics [3]. e major illicit drugs available in Bangladesh are opium derivatives (heroin, pethidine), cannabis (marijuana, ganja, chorosh, bhang, hashish), stimulants (yaba, cocaine), sleeping pills, cough syrup (phensidyl, dexpotent etc.) and few others [1,4]. e problem is increasing day by day and threatening the nation. Males are being affected by drugs more than the females [1] and early adulthood is the vulnerable age for abusing drugs. Preferable drugs are heroin, yaba, cannabis, followed by few others. However, it is under studied in the country. No nation-wide prevalence study has been published yet. ere is dearth of epidemiological research on drug abuse. We aimed to look into the epidemiology of drug use in Bangladesh based on the existing literature.