Données qualitatives d’une cohorte traitée par méthadone ou buprénorphine haut dosage à Marseille, entre 1996 et 2001

Abstract

Present the evolution in the characteristics of drug addicts treated in the Addictions-Sud centre (Marseille) between 1996 and 2001, and compare the profile of patients according to the substitution therapy prescribed. Descriptive analysis of the data collected from the inclusion questionnaire of patients seen during a hospital consultation in the centre and registered in a substitution program (n = 585 patients). In our active file, the use of heroin and injections has decreased since 1996, whereas the consumption of cocaine and above all amphetamines and LSD has greatly increased. When treated, 60% of the patients were administered methadone and 40% BHD. (The patients included in the methadone program (n = 348) were considerably older and frequently HIV or hepatitis C-infected than those treated with BHD (n = 229)). The proportion of patients who had previously undertaken withdrawal or substitution measures, and who continued to inject drugs, was greater in the group of patients in the methadone program. The presence of depression, psychotic disorders and anxiety was noted respectively in 46, 30 and 24% of the patients treated. Today, it is crucial that information on the treatment of drug addicts should be reinforced, so as to measure the progression of the problems encountered, specify the indications of the two substitution products currently prescribed and understand the impact they have on the psychiatric disorders and viral pathologies frequently noted in drug addicts.