Background: Abuse of substance is now recognized as a significant public health problem worldwide. Domestic violence is as serious a cause of death and incapacity among women aged 15-49 years as cancer. Associations have been established between substance abuse and domestic violence. Abused women have more than double the number of medical visits and 8-fold greater mental healthcare usage.

Aim: To examine the pattern and prevalence of drug use and associated domestic violence.

Design: A systematic review.

Data sources: Systematic search for worldwide published literature from Medline, Embase,
Cinahl, ASSIA, ISI, Google Scholar, and Science Direct, databases.

Study eligibility criteria: Studies included in this review reported the methods and/or measures for the pattern and prevalence of drug use and associated domestic violence

Data extraction: The study results were interpreted with respect to their sample size, level of evidence, risk of bias, and level of heterogeneity/homogeneity.

Result: Out of a total of 1,506 publications, which were reduced to 254 after screening the titles and abstracts to assess whether the contents were likely to be within the scope of the review. The researcher also checked and removed studies not meeting the inclusion criteria, accounting for 180 studies removed. A further 64 studies were excluded because they were largely narratives about domestic violence cases, studies of risk factors rather than prevalence or were predominately review articles. 10 studies satisfied all the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Conclusion: Sensitization to the problem of domestic violence with a background of drug abuse should be incorporated not only in medical training, but into governmental, legal, and judicial organizations. Future research should seek to recognize cultural differences in family functioning without necessarily viewing such differences as 'deviant' or 'pathological'.