TITLE:
Use of Cannabis by Young People and Psychopathological Disorders, in Fatick (Senegal)
AUTHORS:
Lamine Fall, Ousmane Sy, Ndeye Diale Ndiaye-Ndongo, Aïda Sylla
KEYWORDS:
Drug Addiction; Cannabis; Psychopathological Disorders; Taking into Care; Senegal
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.4,
March
31,
2014
ABSTRACT: Background: Despite progressive increasing of drug use or drug addiction
particularly with cannabis in young people, knowledge is limited about their
consequences on mental health in adulthood. In Fatick (Senegal), the mental
health hospital “Dalal Xel” receives many young people who present psychiatric
troubles necessitating a hospitalisation. Frequently, their history reveals use
or abuse of cannabis joined sometimes with other drug. Method: From a study
concerning period going from January 2010 to December 2013, the authors attempt
to define the rate of cannabis users in the study’s population. Next, they seek
to describe their social and familial characteristics, and the modality of
cannabis use. Finally, they attempt to make correlations between use of cannabis
and diagnostic delivered by doctors. Results: 9.13% of patients who are
received during the study’s period report personal cannabis use. The middle
delay between the first use of cannabis and the first apparition of psychiatric
troubles is 4 years and 8 months. The diagnostic of acute delirious episode
(BDA in French) is frequently evocated about a first episode or recidivism.
Evolution respects classic report of 1/3 (good, bad and indeterminate).
Schizophrenia is also evocated in non negligible proportion, particularly in
early and prolonged use of cannabis. Conclusion: Psychopathological disorders are frequent among adolescents
and young adults who are hospitalised in the psychiatric hospital of Fatick.
Use of cannabis in long term seems to provide particularly psychosis.