IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v65y2007i2p309-318.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Khat use and mental illness: A critical review

Author

Listed:
  • Warfa, Nasir
  • Klein, Axel
  • Bhui, Kamaldeep
  • Leavey, Gerard
  • Craig, Tom
  • Alfred Stansfeld, Stephen

Abstract

Khat has been used as a stimulant plant in many parts of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula for centuries. Its current use among particular migrant communities in Europe and elsewhere has caused alarm among policy makers and health care professionals. In the United Kingdom, the debate over the psychiatric and social implications of khat use has led to a demand for stricter legal control of this stimulant plant. This paper (a) provides a historical overview of khat use, and (b) reviews the evidence for the existence of a causal link between khat use and mental illness. To do so, we undertook a detailed search of social and medical science databases for case reports, qualitative and quantitative articles on khat use and mental illness from 1945 to 2006. The validity and reliability of the studies that met our inclusion criteria were examined. Lastly, although highlighting health concerns about khat use we suggest that the debate about this popular drug in migrant populations carries elements of a 'moral panic'. There is a need for improved research on khat use and its possible association with psychiatric disorders.

Suggested Citation

  • Warfa, Nasir & Klein, Axel & Bhui, Kamaldeep & Leavey, Gerard & Craig, Tom & Alfred Stansfeld, Stephen, 2007. "Khat use and mental illness: A critical review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 309-318, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:2:p:309-318
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(07)00226-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kennedy, John G. & Teague, James & Rokaw, William & Cooney, Elizabeth, 1983. "A medical evaluation of the use of qat in North Yemen," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 17(12), pages 783-793, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Odenwald, Michael & Hinkel, Harald & Schauer, Elisabeth & Schauer, Maggie & Elbert, Thomas & Neuner, Frank & Rockstroh, Brigitte, 2009. "Use of khat and posttraumatic stress disorder as risk factors for psychotic symptoms: AÂ study of Somali combatants," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 1040-1048, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rashad Mohammed Alsanosy & Mohamed Salih Mahfouz & Abdelrahim Mutwakel Gaffar, 2013. "Khat Chewing Habit among School Students of Jazan Region, Saudi Arabia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(6), pages 1-7, June.
    2. Kaliyaperumal Karunamoorthi & Mohammed Jubran Almalki, 2018. "Khat-Chewing and Psychotic Disorder: Socialomics Implications in Leveraging Community-based Anti-Khat Campaign Strategies," Global Journal of Addiction & Rehabilitation Medicine, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 5(2), pages 30-36, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:2:p:309-318. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.