DRUG ABUSE AND THE INCIDENCE OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN NIGERIA: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

This study examined drug abuse and the incidence of mental illness in Nigeria: a systematic review. It employed a 
systematic search of the literature on drug abuse in Nigeria using Pub Med from the inception of the database to March 
13, 2020. A search strategy using the following terms both as medical subheading (MeSH) and free text as title and 
abstract (tiab) was developed. Relevant studies were identified manually from the reference lists of the included 
articles and discussion with experts on the subject matter. Information was retrieved from Google Scholar using search 
expression such as; “Drug abuse, illicit drug abuse, psychotropic abuse and mental illness in Nigeria.”Based on 
previous recommendations, only the first 200 search results from the Google scholar search were considered for 
inclusion. The study proved that the burden of drug abuse is growing despite several drug laws, policies and strategic 
plans to prevent it; the prevalence is higher among the younger population, males, undergraduate and secondary school 
students, and commercial vehicle drivers; the most abused drugs included cannabis, amphetamine, codeine, cocaine 
and heroin. The major sources for the drugs were pharmacies/patent medicine stores, drug hawkers, friends who are 
abusers and drug pushers; the frequent reasons for indulging into drug abuse were to improve physical performance, 
to drive pleasure, desire to sleep, to experiment/curiosity motives, and to keep awake; factors such as poor 
socioeconomic status, peer-group pressure, family problems and poor academic performance were commonly 
associated with drug abuse in Nigeria; drug abuse has been a cause of many debilitating conditions such as 
schizophrenia and psychosis, leading to psychiatric admissions. Therefore, stringent measures and sustainable 
interventions are urgently needed to curb the increasing burden of drug abuse in Nigeria