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Substance Abuse in Arab World: Does It Matter and Where Are We?

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Handbook of Healthcare in the Arab World

Abstract

Substance abuse is a growing public health problem worldwide, including in the Arab countries. However, data describing substance abuse in Arab countries are still limited. This chapter outlines the possible causes for the lack of substance-related research in the Arab world. It also attempts to provide an overview of substance use in the Arab world to help the reader understand the magnitude of this public health problem and its negative consequences. By reading this chapter, the reader should know the prevalence of substance use among the general population, students, and patients in the Arab counties, identify the most commonly abused substances based on the available data, recognize the impact of substances in terms of morbidity and mortality, and identify the available prevention and treatment strategies. This chapter also includes recommendations for Arab policymakers to control drug abuse. More research is still needed to help provide a clearer picture of the extent of drug abuse in the Arab world.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Fares F. Alharbi & Khaled Al-Surimi

  2. College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Fares F. Alharbi & Ettab G. Alsubaie

  3. Ministry of the National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Fares F. Alharbi

  4. School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK

    Khaled Al-Surimi

  5. Healthcare Management Consultant, Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Khaled Al-Surimi

  6. College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), College of Public Health and Health Informatics, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Khaled Al-Surimi

Authors
  1. Fares F. Alharbi
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  2. Ettab G. Alsubaie
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  3. Khaled Al-Surimi
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology Pharmacology and Therapeutics, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Ismail Laher

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Community Medicine, Public Health and Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Jordan University of Science & Technology, Irbid, Jordan

    Yousef Saleh Khader

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Alharbi, F.F., Alsubaie, E.G., Al-Surimi, K. (2021). Substance Abuse in Arab World: Does It Matter and Where Are We?. In: Laher, I. (eds) Handbook of Healthcare in the Arab World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36811-1_179

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