PREVELANCE OF EATING DISORDERS, SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND DEPRESSION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE GIRLS

Eating disorders are mental illnesses that cause serious disturbances in a person’s everyday diet. A person with an eating disorder may go to great lengths to hide, disguise or deny their behaviour, or do not recognize that there is anything wrong. Substance abuse is a patterned use of a substance (drug) in which the user consumes the substance in amounts or with methods which are harmful to themselves or others. Depending on the actual compound, drug abuse may lead to health problems, social problems, morbidity, injuries, unprotected sex, violence, deaths, motor vehicle accidents, homicides, suicides, physical dependence or psychological addiction Depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, feelings of tiredness and poor concentration. It is a mood disorder is characterized by the feelings of severe despondency and dejection. The current investigation was designed to study the prevalence of eating disorders, substance or drug abuse and depression among the undergraduate girls and the interrelationship between eating disorder, substance abuse and depression. The sample for current investigation consisted of 80 college students from post graduate Government college for girls, sector-11, Chandigarh (where 40 are day-scholars and 40 are hostellers) in the age group of 17-23 years. For this purpose, the Eating Attitude Scale, Drug Abuse Screening Test and Beck Depression Inventory were administered to the sample. Inter-correlational analysis was used for the statistical analysis. Eating disorder and substance use are found to be positively related with depression. Results will be discussed along with the implications.