Course Of Addiction Research Articles

Inhalant abuse and heroin addiction: A comparative study on 574 opiate addicts with and without a history of sniffing

In the present study, a comparison relating to various social aspects was made between 74 opiate addicts who had abused or continued to abuse solvents and 500 fixers without sniffing experience (SE). The results show clear differences between the two groups with reference to age, sex, social status, socialization conditions, family structure, education, vocational training, drug sequence and criminality as well as attitude and motivation towards withdrawal therapy. Contrary to hitherto existing assumptions, solvent abuse among children and juveniles can lead to opiate addiction, given a certain set of social circumstances. Polytoxicomanic opiate addicts with sniffing experience can be differentiated as a marginal group with particularly unfavorable developmental conditions and a specific course of addiction. The results make it clear that a stronger differentiation is necessary within the group of heroin addicts, which has often been regarded as being homogeneous.

Deaths of drug addicts in the United Kingdom 1967-81.

A search of the Home Office index of notified drug addicts identified 1499 deaths during 1967-81, of which 226 (15%) were of therapeutic addicts--that is, patients who had become addicted during medical treatment with a notifiable drug--and 1273 (85%) were of non-therapeutic addicts. The crude mortality fell from 23.5/1000/year for the period 1968-70 to 18.4/1000/year for 1978-80. Altogether 416 addicts aged under 50 at notification died after 1972, which was 16 times the number of deaths expected in a population with a similar age and sex composition. A more detailed examination of the cohorts of addicts notified each year showed little variation between them in the first two years of follow up. Nineteen addicts (1.6%) had died by 31 December of the year of their notification and 39 (3.3%) one year later. These figures may be an indication of the clinical course of addiction. Most deaths of non-therapeutic addicts in which a drug was implicated (939 cases (74%] were due to medically prescribed drugs--barbiturates at first and later opiates such as dipipanone hydrochloride and dextromoramide. Heroin was implicated in only 65 (7%) of these deaths. The Home Office index is a valuable source for identifying drugs of abuse and serious problems of addiction. The fact that prescribed drugs are causing the death of so many addicts demands a response from the medical profession.

Effects of chronic barbiturate intoxication on motivation and muscular coordination.

INVESTIGATIONS of chronic barbiturate intoxication have yielded considerable information on physiological functioning, 1 intellectual impairment, and personality changes 2 during the course of addiction. The present study is an attempt to add to this information by delineating several aspects of readiness to respond (motivation) and muscular coordination during the course of chronic intoxication with certain barbiturates and during the periods of withdrawal of drugs and of recovery from the drug effects. Clinical studies from this laboratory 1 have amply shown that acute or chronic intoxication with large amounts of barbiturates (secobarbital, pentobarbital, amobarbital) produces nystagmus, incoordination, ataxia in gait and station, and coarse tremors of the hands. The muscular incoordination of intoxicated persons is so obvious that the measures obtained in the present study were recorded mainly for purposes of quantification and comparison. However, the effects of changing motivations upon the disorganized behavior observed during intoxication and withdrawal have not