Awareness on Digital Drugs Abuse and its Applied Prevention Among Healthcare Practitioners in KSA

Digital drugs abuse, also known as I-dosing, has recently emerged as a danger to Middle Eastern teen­agers through different media channels. This study aimed to investigate the level of knowledge of digital drug abuse among health practioners in KSA, explore their attitude towards it and describe the possible pre­ventive policies if any, and their experience of any medicolegal implemented awareness strategies to combat this phenomenon. A cross-sectional survey was used to gather data. An open-ended questionnaire with two parts contain­ing open-ended questions was developed, validated, pretested, and randomly distributed to 200 voluntary participating health care practitioners of both sexes (n = 200) attending a continuous medical education seminar in May 2015 held in Madinah. Ethical approval and an informed written consent was obtained. Participants were males (65%) and females (35%) with different professional degrees. The knowledge of I-dosing of digital drugs was 30%. The source of this knowledge was through media (96%) and through receiving inquiries concerning this topic (71.9%). Only 14.7% of participants knew the mechanism of action of digital drugs. However, 65% of the participants thought digital drugs are real threats. From the participants, 16.9% were approached by an awareness program concerning this issue. This study concluded the urgent need for an awareness program directed at medical practitioners and communities in KSA. Keywords: Forensic Science, Digital Drug, I-Dosing, Teenage, Abuse, Prevention, Healthcare Practitioners.