الفهرس 
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Abstract
Conclusion
The present study revealed that:-
• Males are at higher risk for drug abuse than females among Sohag University students.
• The most common drug group of self medication was analgesics and was more among females while stimulants abuse was more among males who took them mostly by encouragement of their friends.
• Smoking is a route for drug abuse and drug abuse is a reason to continue smoking.
• Drinking alcohols usually associated with student’s illicit drug/s abuse.
• Cannabis followed by tramadol were the most common drugs of abuse among undergraduate students, while amphetamines was not known as a drug of abuse among Sohag University students.
• Males especially those abusing tramadol are at higher risk for being poly-drug abusers among Sohag University students.
• Drug abusers undergraduate university students had higher default and dropout in their study as repetitions of scholastic years than non abusers students also failing in study and stress can be a reason to continue abusing.
• Drug abuse especially tramadol is a risk factor for poisoning and hospital admission due to overdose toxicity also can be a cause for violence and traffic accidents which lead to police admission.
• University period is a critical period for youth as they liable to engage in many dangerous behaviors to prove themselves such as smoking and abusing drugs.
Recommendations
1. Drug abuse screening should be routine for college students.
2. With appearance of designer drugs we need better drug screens and toxicological tests to diagnose drugs that can’t be detected by the current screen.
3. Education prevention programmes and awareness creation on harmful effect of substance abuse especially among male students should be done. There should be a unit in the university that is responsible for counseling depressed students. Effective programs help improve self-esteem, and reduce stress and anxiety.
4. There must be proper education in different types of media about the complications of abuse, liability for overdose toxicity, how difficult to stop abuse and the big mistake the youth done when experiment these drugs for the first time.
5. Great care of students with dropouts and defaults in their study to know the cause and the problems surrounding them and help them to raise their level in study.
6. Proper restrictions should be taken in pharmacies, from which pharmaceutical drugs of abuse can be easily obtained.
7. For students found to be drug abusers detoxification must be associated with proper medical supervision to avoid relapse and drug overdose. Drug abusers in treatment programs should be learned about the risk factors for drug overdose, abstinence and drug combinations.
8. Psychiatric assessment of students who abuse drugs and follow up after discharge.
9. Extensive programs to increase public awareness of poisoning and intensify the role of media in enlightenment of public awareness.
10. Parental counseling should have an important role in prevention of drug abuse.
11. Arrangements are needed to make periodic sessions in Colleges and Institutes by physician, religious men and sociologists to discuss the problem of smoking and drug abuse with students to help them to cessate or quiet these bad habits.
12. Further prospective, meticulous, comprehensive and multicenter-based studies should be designed to determine the pattern of drug abuse among college students in other cities in Egypt and minimize its prevalence.
Summary
Young adulthood, ages 15 to 24, is a period of transition in emotional development, educational and vocational activities. It is a period when young people assume adult roles, responsibilities, and social skills. For university students it is time when they are often no longer under direct parental supervision, face new social and academic pressures.
Young adults aged 15 -24 years constituted about 20% of the Egyptian population in 2000.
Drug addiction is one of the serious problems that worry the Egyptian government, as it deals with young people within the age of productivity. It may lead to many problems such as bad social adaptation and decreasing productivity.
According to the World Drug Report (2005), the use of illicit drugs in all nations has increased in recent years.
According to PCC Ain Shams we need specific attention towards the younger age of drug users and the progressive increase of some of drugs of abuse and the changing pattern of poisoning over years.
This study was a cross-sectional study, conducted on 500 students in Sohag University during the period from beginning of November 2014 to the end of May 2015. It aimed to identify the attitudes of drug abuse among Sohag University students, also to identify the commonest drug/drugs of abuse among them.
Ethical consideration was taken and permission was granted through the Faculty of Medicine and approved by the President of Sohag University to the Deans of the colleges and institutes in order to collect the necessary data. Also, the objectives of the study were explained to the students and the data will be used only for the purpose of the study and informed consent was obtained.
Data of the students were taken from the questionnaire filled by students and the results of screening urine samples.
Data recorded, statistically analyzed and presented under the following headings:
• Socio-demographic data of university students.
• Socio-economic class of university students.
• Relationship between smoking and alcohols and drug abuse.
• Relationship between drug abuse and study problems.
• Relationship between drug abuse and hospitals and police stations admission
• Commonest drug/drugs of abuse in each gender.
The present study revealed that:
Among 500 students of the study the range of their age was 17-24 years and the mean age was 20.03±1.31 years.
52.40% of all students were males while the other 47.60% were females. According to college and institute type 42.80% of all studied students were in clinical colleges, 26.60% were in theoretical college, and 30.60% were in technician institutes.
The prevalence of smoking among all studied students was 7.6% and strongly related to gender as in total males 14.1% were current smokers while in total females only 0.4%; while, the prevalence of abusing alcohols was 5% of all studied students and all of them were males.
The prevalence of analgesics, sedatives and stimulants among all studied students were 69.20%, 4.20% and 4.00% respectively.
The Prevalence of drug abuse according to urine test results was 5% among all studied students and significantly related to gender (8.8% in total males and 0.84 in total females). The most abused drug was tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (2.80%) followed by tramadol (1.80%) then benzodiazepines (BZDs) (0.60%), while, opium and barbiturates each one of them (0.40%), finally amphetamine wasn’t found in any students. Polydrug users among the abusing students were about 16% which were only males and tramadol was the common drug to use in poly drug users.
Drug abuse had a great effect on study. There was a highly statistically significant relationship between drug abuse and failure of the abuser in an exam before and repeating a scholastic year before.
There was a highly statistically significant relationship between drug abuse and admission of the student to the hospitals and police stations before.
There was no statistically significant relationship between drug abuse and residence of the students and whatever student lives with or far from his family.
There was no statistically significant relationship between drug abuse and type of education and type of colleges or institutes of the student.
There was no statistically significant relationship between drug abuse and socioeconomic class of the student.
The present study found that the most important predictors of drug abuse among Sohag University students are:
• Being male and knowing other drug abusers.
• Encouragement of friends especially in using stimulants drugs.
• Smoking is the first step before abusing.
• Alcohols abusing is a risk factor for abusing drugs.
• Failure in study.
• Tramadol abuser is at risk for being poly drug users.
This study recommends to do drug abuse screening tests routinely for college students, to do education prevention programmes to increase the knowledge of students about the harmful effect of substance use especially among males, and arrangement are needed to make periodic sessions in Colleges by physician, religious men and sociologists to discuss the problem of smoking and drug abuse with students to help them to cessate or quiet these bad habits.