Determination of adverse effects ofsubstance use disorder on patients's lives and functioning and marital adjustment

This study was conducted to determine of negative effects on the lives of people, functioning and marital adjustment of patients with substance use disorder. All the patients diagnosed as substance use disorder Gaziantep 25 Aralık State Hospital-Ahmet Şireci Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment and Education Center (ASATEC) in during the research constitute the research population. The sample of the research has been consisted of 309 patients who are suitable for the criteria of the research. The data has been collected by using The Descriptive Information Form, Short Functional Rating Scale (SFRS) and Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). For evaluating the dates, percentile, arithmetic mean, standart deviation has been used. It was determined that the patients started the substance use for the first time at 19.68 ± 6.69 years old, the most used substance in the last one year was cannabis, and the almost (everyday) used substance was heroin. When substance use disorders are assessed for adverse effects on patients' lives; it was found that 19.4% of the patients were adversely affected by their education life, the divorce rate was increased and 44% were economically adversely affected, 44.0% had a negative impact on their working lives (before the substance use, the rate of working decreased from 76.1% to 31.1%). It was also found that 41.7% of the patients had physical health deteriorated, 81.9% had decreased sexual desire, 25.2% had the wrong sexual experience while under substance effect, 19.1% had the contagious disease, and 69.6% were violent behavior, 49.2% of them had attempted suicide due to substance use. In this study, DAS total mean score of the patients was found to be 76.65 ± 32.48 and that of SFRS was 1.93 ± 0.80.According to these findings, it is seen that patients' diyadic adjustment was adversely affected and their functionalities deteriorated. As a result, it has been determined that substance use disorder negatively affects the lives of patients in many ways, and patients' functionalities and marital adjustment are low. It is recommended that counseling be provided in order to improve the living standards, marital adjustment and functionalities of the patients.