Psychological Factors and Severity of Drug Addiction among Drug Addicts in Malaysia

Drug addiction is a serious social ill that has no ending. Statistics by National AntiDrug Agency (NADA) revealed that there is a significant increase in the number of drug addicts which predominated by males from the age group of 20 to 40 years. Undeniably, this problem is also common among underage teens. Although voluminious researches have explained about the potential factors for drug addiction, however, comparison of psychological factors according to the severity of drug addiction is remain underexplored. Therefore, this study aims to ascertain the drug addiction severity level as well as the differences in psychological factors according to severity levels among drug addicts in Malaysia. A quantitative research using a cross-sectional survey research design involving 300 drug addicts from 10 NADA Districts from Peninsular Malaysia was conducted. PsychoADDICT questionnaire which comprised of four Malay validated instruments were used to measure personality traits, cognitive distortion, self-control and severity of drug addiction. One-way ANOVA analysis was employed to ascertain the differences in psychological factors according to drug addiction severity levels (low, moderate and high). Findings showed that personality traits (Impulsive Sensation Seeking, Aggressiveness-Hostility, and Neuroticism-Anxiety), Cognitive Distortion and Self-control were significantly differ according to the levels of drug addiction severity. Post-hoc Tukey analysis was carried out to identify the significant pairs. Only Activity and Sociability personality traits were not significant according to the drug addiction severity levels. It is anticipated the findings of this study are very beneficial to development of intervention modules to treat and rehabilitate the drug addicts as well as at-risk teens.