Assessment of health and neuropsychological implications of substance abuse on cognitive development among adolescent in Kano metropolis

Abstract

Substance abuse among adolescents continues to be a major problem worldwide and Nigeria like other nations, continue to exhibit a low level of development to these effects. Many people at one time or the other have taken drugs without prescription by a Medical Personnel and often times for non-medical reasons. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaire from a sample of 190 adolescents aged 11 to19 years who have been abusing drugs for at least one year. Descriptive cross-sectional design was used. Data obtained from the questionnaires was presented using frequencies, tables, percentages and analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 26.0. Quantitative variables were summarized as means standard deviation and two (2) hypotheses were tested using analysis of variance. The result shows that drug abusers have general satisfaction over their feelings they may have about their memory over the past two weeks. They were generally pleased with their memory ability. The result of the hypothesis shows that there is significant between tobacco consumption and feelings that people may have about their memory over the past two weeks. There is significant between tobacco consumption and the common memory mistakes that people make over the past two weeks. The study has important implications for policy makers to initiate primary preventive measures that would be focused towards the reduction of Health and Neuropsychological implication of psychoactive substance abuse on adolescent cognitive development.