Perceptions of substance use, treatment options and training needs among Iranian primary care physicians

Table 2 GPs' perceptions of patient and treatment characteristics associated with interventions for substance use (N = 53)

Characteristic ^a	% or n
Who is more willing to quit?
Males	62%
Don't know	11%
Target groups for campaigns against abuse?
Youth ≤ 25 years	68%
Urban	5%
Users and drug and alcohol organisations	8%
Jails	3%
Other	16%
What is the most important motive for quitting? ^b
Family or marital pressure	60%
Economic pressure	44%
Tired of addiction	42%
Legal issues	22%
Employment issues	12%
Physical illness	4%
Other	4%
What is a suitable substitute for substance use? ^c
Drug or other treatment	18
Societal, family or community factors	16
Recreational/sporting activities	11
Employment	10
Restricted access or punitive (eg. jail)	3
Nothing or don't know	7
Most effective methods for quitting nicotine? ^c
Counselling or psycho-social interventions	22
Recreational or sporting activities	9
Pharmacotherapy	7
Combination of therapies	3
Alternative therapies	1
Individual's determination to quit	2
Don't know	3
Important side-effects of quitting nicotine? ^c
Restlessness/irritability	18
Physical symptoms/effects	13
Emotional symptoms/effects	7
Non-specified withdrawal symptoms	4
None	7
Effectiveness of complementary medicines for nicotine dependence? ^c
Not effective/minimal	10
Somewhat effective	12
Effective	6
Other	6
Don't know	12
Suitability of GP to provide drug services
Suitable	71%

^aData missing: n = 3–12
^bDoes not sum to 100%, because these questions asked separately
^cDoes not sum to 53, because some GPs gave more than one answer and some gave no answer

ISSN: 1475-9276