Substance abuse among psychiatric inpatients

The drug use history was obtained for all patients admitted to the inpatient service of a large municipal hospital during a 1-month period. A total of 104 patients were evaluated. An inverse relationship was found between the frequency of drug use and the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Approximately one third of the patients were found to be polydrug users, that is, individuals who used at least two types of drugs weekly (e.g., alcohol plus cocaine, heroin plus cocaine, etc.) during the 3 months prior to hospitalization. Most of the polydrug users were males. Patients who scored high in drug use tended to be younger, had more seclusions while on the ward, and had less of a history of drug or alcohol treatment. The drug having the highest frequency of daily use was found to be cocaine. It appears that drug use in general and polydrug use in particular is increasing among psychiatric patients.