Epidemiology of alcohol, tobacco and substance use

Tobacco, alcohol and illicit substance use continue to result in substantial morbidity and mortality rate and significant socio-economical costs despite considerable efforts to minimize use of licit substances and prevent use of illicit substances [1,2]. Substance use is associated with a wide range of risk behavior including symptom of both dependence and abuse. Consequences of alcohol and illicit/illegal substance abuse include, medical illnesses -like cirrhosis, job loss and criminal behavior related to acquisition and sale of these drugs [1]. Substance use contributes substantially to the global burden of disease. Tobacco is the fourth important risk factor causing burden of disease as expressed in the number of healthy life years (disability adjusted life years, DALYs). Alcohol is the fifth commonest disease burden and illicit/illegal drugs are in the top 20 causes of disease [3]. Illicit drug use refers to the non-medical use of variety of drugs including cannabis, amphetamine type stimulants, cocaine and opioids [3]. People use psychoactive drugs because of expecting to benefit from their use, whether by pleasure or by the avoidance of pain, including social uses. But using these substances also carries with its potentially harmful effects [4]. © 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved