Personal, Familial, and Social Factors Contributing to Addiction Relapse, Ahvaz, Iran

Abstract

Background: Drug addiction is deemed one of the gravest threats to society. Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine what factors (personal, familial, or social) are correlated with addiction relapse. Patients and Methods: In this descriptive study, 146 addicts referring to addiction treatment centers in the Iranian city of Ahvaz were selected via purposive and non-randomized sampling. The study tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and SPSS software were used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that 46.1% of the participants aged between 20 and 30 years. All the subjects had at least one attempt at quitting drug abuse. Single individuals comprised 52.9% of the study population. The most significant physical factors were lack of appetite (23.9%), numbness and pins and needles (23.3%), and bone pain (22.4%), while the most significant mental factor was loneliness (44%). Concerning the social factors, association with addicted and misleading friends (35.2%) had the utmost importance. Furthermore, lack of a permanent job (43%) and absence of appropriate family relationships (32%), respectively, constituted the most important factors among the career and familial factors. Conclusions: Our results showed that many personal, familial, and social factors play a role in addiction relapse. The high prevalence of return to addiction necessitates further strategies for the more optimal control of these factors.