*Pattern of Substance Abuse among Children in Slum Areas of India DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105596*

### **Table 5.**

*Drug abuse & related parameters.*

experiencing thrill in life and academic stress [25]. Our results coincides with Benegal et al. Prashant et al. [11], in their study, they revealed most common reason was peer pressure (52.9%) then for pleasure (21.1%).But according to Jain et al. curiosity (68%) was the main reason for start of substance abuse [22], the reason behind it may be due to different culture and economic status. Another study by Barua et al. shown that

**Figure 1.** *Sex distribution among abusers.*

**Figure 2.** *Age and sex distribution of abusers.*

academic stress comforting outcome and only for enjoyment were the common causes of consumption of alcohol [23].

This study also revealed that the most common substance being abused is the widely available Tobacco (56.9%) which is supporting, the findings of Dhirendra N. Sinha et al. [28]. Our findings are similar with Jasani PK et al., it showed most common substance is tobacco 25.83%, followed by liquor (2.17%), opioid/afin (1%) bhang (0.67%) [25].

Bihar based study by Sinha et al. showed that smoking is commonest substance abuse (19.4%)in school going children [14]. Kaur et al. from North India revealed 39.2% substance abusers consumes tobacco [15]. Another study from Uttar Pradesh by Dube and Handa et al. stated that alcohol is consumed by 22.8% abusers [16]. Similar findings 18.55% abusers are taking alcohol are also reported by Thacore [17], Shukla et al. described that 38.3% is substance abuse prevalence in the rural population in Uttar Pradesh [18]. Jena et al. also reported 28.8% rural people of Bihar consumes alcohol/drug [19]. Study conducted in most sensitive state, Punjab by Varma et al. revealed that 45.9% alcohol taking habit in urban population and 28.1% in rural population [20, 21].

It was found that in slum areas 87% children were drug abusers, among which 83% were boys and 17% were girls Prevalence of tobacco use was higher among boys than girls. Many research studies have found that, in India 50% children up to grade nine experiences the substance at least once [26, 27, 29]. Study by Majra et al. found that tobacco consumption is more among males (42.1%) as compared to females (17.0%) [13]. As boys are involved more in outdoor activities and are subjected to substance abuse. Adolescents reported using tobacco in multiple forms, chewing tobacco being the most popular.

A WHO study group on youth and drugs indicated that most of the experimentation and initiation of dependence producing drugs takes place during adolescence [30]. Though they had some knowledge about the harmful effects of substances, this was not sufficient to motivate them to quit, in our study only 46.3% were willing to quit. Craving (50.9%) was the most common cause to abstain substance abuse.

11 DSM-5 criteria implementation in clinics research purpose is easier than 11 DSM-IV criteria because one disorder is involved instead of two hierarchical disorders. A checklist helps for covering all criteria [31].
