Epidemiological profile of substance abuse in Iraq: Retrospective study.

Background: The excessive and prolonged use of any relevant material is known as substance abuse. The study's objective is to determine the epidemiology of substance abuse's growth in Iraq over the 4 years between 2020 and 2023.

Materials and methods: A retrospective study was applied for the purpose of collecting the sample, as the study was epidemiological and related to substance abuse among Iraqis for 4 years from the beginning of 2020 to 2023. Participants' data were collected from records that were available in the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment for four consecutive years. The sample size was (22,767). The questionnaire was divided into two main parts. The first part included demographic information, including gender, target groups, and areas where substance abuse was prevalent, whereas the second part included the type of addictive substance and prevalence during the year. The data collected were analyzed using the "Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 27" method by entering the data package into the statistical program to determine the frequency and percentage.

Results: The study's findings demonstrated that over 90% of the sample was male and that about half of the sample suffered from alcohol addiction. In addition, Baghdad Governorate has the highest prevalence rate among the other governorates, estimated at about%20.9.

Conclusion: According to the results of the current study, about half of the sample abused alcohol. In contrast to the northern governorates of the nation, drug abuse was most common in the central and southern governorates of Iraq.