DOI: 10.5061/dryad.ns1rn8ppb
title: Predictors of controlled prescription drug nonmedical and lifetime use among patients accessing public mental health services in Uganda: a cross-sectional study

description: Background: Access to drug substances with mood rewarding effects such as
 opioids, central nervous system stimulants, sedatives, hypnotics and
 intravenous anaesthetics is tightly controlled by law globally. Those
 which are clinically approved have strict prescription and accountability
 requirements throughout the supply chain, and are collectively called
 prescription drugs or controlled prescription drugs (CPDs), while some
 such as heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methylenedioxymethamphetamine
 (MDMA) are prohibited from clinical use and are called illicit drugs.
 Despite their essential uses in clinical medicine, access to CPDs is
 tightly controlled because nonmedical use elicits drug use disorders,
 namely, drug misuse, drug abuse, and drug dependence. Nonmedical use of
 CPDs and drug use disorders has a reciprocal relationship with
 neurological impairment and severe mental disorders that undermines
 effective treatment of mental disorders. Therefore, mitigating drug use
 disorders among mental health patients is important. This requires
 understanding the burden and factors associated with CPD nonmedical use
 among mental health patients. This dataset was compiled from a
 cross-sectional survey to determine the prevalence of CPD and illicit drug
 nonmedical use and associated factors among patients attending mental
 health services in Uganda. Data collection: A cross-sectional survey of
 1275 patients was performed at three referral mental health facilities in
 Uganda from November to December, 2018 using interviewer-administered
 semi-structured questionnaires, desk review guide, and urine drug assays.
 The questionnaire recorded CPD nonmedical and illicit drug use history
 from patients’ files, CPD lifetime use, and risk factors. We defined CPD
 nonmedical use as either a positive urine assay for CPDs without current
 prescription for the drug(s) in patient’s file or a documented clinician’s
 diagnosis of CPD drug use disorder in a patient’s lifetime in their
 hospital files. On the other hand, lifetime use was defined as having used
 at least one CPD from a list of 22 commonly prescribed CPD products
 indicated on the questionnaire. Data processing: Numerical data such as
 age and duration of ailment was collected in absolute figures, not ranges.
 In order to involve such as variables in logistic regression, binary
 categories for numerical variables were generated using the median as
 cut-off. Additionally, some multi-category data such as education level
 were also further processed into binary categories before regression
 analysis. Furthermore, urine positive results were categorized into CPD
 nonmedical and medical use after collaboration with patients’ file data on
 recently prescribed medications. Dataset contents: The dataset contains
 the following data; a) background characteristics of study participants
 redacted for some details like questionnaire number, name of health
 facility, variables like nationality, native home region, religion,
 previous mental disorder, professional background, and specific education
 level; b) history of clinician diagnosed CPD and illicit drug use
 disorders; c) current mental health disorder; d) drivers of CPD nonmedical
 use, including consumption of alcohol and tobacco; e) history of lifetime
 use of individual CPDs; f) history of treatment against CPD use; g)
 history of CPD withdrawal effects; i) whether participant provided a urine
 sample; and j) the urine assay result. Ethical considerations: The study
 protocol upon which this data was collected was approved by the
 Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the School of Health Sciences at
 Makerere University and the Uganda National Council of Science and
 Technology. Data was also collected after obtaining informed consent from
 the next of kin or caregiver of study participants (mental health
 patients) with the assent of the participants. Reuse potential: The
 dataset contains significant amounts of data that has not been utilized in
 the analyses we conducted for the manuscript that was submitted for
 publication. These include; amounts of alcohol and tobacco consumption,
 experiences with CPD withdrawal symptoms, how participants obtain CPDs for
 nonmedical use, and history of care for CPD drug use disorders, among
 others. Therefore, there is significant reuse potential in the dataset.
description: The dataset was generated from three data sources, namely;
 semi-structured questionnaire; prescribed drug history data extraction
 from hospital records using a desk review guide; urine drug immunoassay
 data. The study outcome "nonmedical use" was derived from urine
 drug assay data by ruling out authorized use from the patients prescribed
 drug history. Binary predictor variables used in the logistic regression
 analysis are labeled in the dataset. 
description: The total dataset has 1275 study participants. However, urine
 data is only for 988 participants. Also, data on historical controlled
 drug use disorder is from 1267 participants only as eight files were not
 accessible. The dataset has been redacted of potential participant
 identifiers such as name of hospital, questionaire number, age (only
 categorization is in the dataset), sex, marital status, current mental
 illness, year of onset of mental illness, past mental illness, and date of
 recent admission to hospital for inpatients.