Toxicovigilance: the misuse of psychotropic drugs in Morocco. Results of a survey conducted in Casablanca

Abstract

In Morocco, there are very few studies on the use of drugs and even less on psychotropic medicines (MPSYC). In this study we identified the misuse of MPSYC and their sources of supply in order to determine their modes of consumption and also assess the consumers health status. Methods. An anonymous survey of 500 MPSYC consumers was conducted in Casablanca. Data entry and statistical analysis were carried out using SPSS 25.0 software.Results: 500 participants in the survey were poly-drug users of MPSYC with an average of 4.13 ± 0.007 (± SEM) drugs per user. The most misused MPSYC are Clonazepam, Diazepam, Nordazepam and Tramadol with respective prevalences of 96.80%, 82%, 55.60% and 47.80%. A statistical analysis showed that clonazepam (p=0.047) and tramadol (p=0.005) are prevalent in the street market. 54.20% of survey participants use MPSYC once a week while 39.80% of them use it twice a week. The same statistical analysis revealed that taking several MPSYC lead to an increase of ingested doses (p<0.001) and alcohol consumption (p=0.003). 96.40% (n=482) of the participants declared that they had experienced discomfort misusing the medicine.

Keywords

• psychotropic drugs
• misuse
• drugs
• prevalence
• consumption
• access
• health