Drug Abuse and Mental Illness Among Young People in Ghana: A Desk Research

Abstract

Rita Tekpertey and Anthony Edward Boakye

Background: Drug abuse and mental illness are strictly linked together. Essentially, drug abuse is regarded as a factor that can escalates the principal risk for mental illness.

Objective: This secondary research attempts a desk review of literatures on drug abuse and mental illness to unearth the relationship that exist between them from scholarly point of view with the intention of identifying if drug abuse related matters are linked to mental illness among young people in Ghana, and ascertaining if social stigma of drug abuse relates to mental illness among young people in Ghana.

Method: The study employed a desktop review approach to identify literatures on drug abuse, drug abuse related matters, mental illness, drug abuse social stigma and how they are linked to mental illness among young people in Ghana from PsycINFO, PubMed, and Global Health, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, SABINET using search terms such as drug abuse, drug abuse related matters, mental illness, drug abuse social stigma and how they are linked to mental illness among young people in Ghana.

Results: Key findings include drug abuse related matters and mental illness, suicide and self-harm, social stigma of drug abuse and mental illness, stigma of substance abuse, social support.

Conclusion: Few studies were reviewed so, due to that generalisability was not possible

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