Trastornos por uso de drogas y comorbilidad psiquiatrica en un servicio para la toxicodependencia (Sert) durante un periodo de seis anos.

For more than fifty years the existence of a correlation between the use of psychoactive substances and psychiatric disorders, albeit with different results and suggestions for treatment, has been constantly reconfirmed. The present study investigated all the new cases referred to a SERT in a six-month period (220 patients of which 110 attended the Unit between 1985-86 and 110 between 1991-92), to see if over a five-year period the type of drug addict attending the national health clinic for substance-related disorders had changed. Parameters used were age when drug abuse began, how the drug was administered, presence/absence of HIV positivity, co-presence of psychiatric disturbances. We also tried to establish if, and to what extent the presence of psychiatric disorders in drug addicts influences compliance with treatment and its retention. An analysis of the data leads to the hypothesis that the differences found indicate a slow progressive change in the type of drug addict attending the SERT. An extremely interesting finding was the increase of patients with Axis II diagnosis, especially personality disorders in Cluster C, while the incidence of other disorders was basically unchanged.